Hapan Revolution I: Oppression
by Onimiman
Summary: Taking place a few months after the novel Crucible, a terrorist organization known as the Free Men intend to bring equality between men and women in the Hapes Consortium. But because of the matriarchal oppression they face, freedom will come at a great price: the stability of the Consortium itself. Author's Note: No major character will die here, this is a fun fanfic this time.
1. Chapter 1

On the Hapan world of Andalia, several dozen males - all of whom ranged from their teens well into their sunset years - had gathered a few meters away from the gated entrance of Ducha Lorangal's noble estate in broad daylight. Some of the men held picket signs with pro-male sentiments over their heads as they chanted, "Free men now! Free men now! Free men now!"

Lorangal herself looked out from the window of her bedroom to stare directly ahead at the protesters, dozens of meters away outside her estate's perimeter, in abject bemusement. Since when did the handlers of these men allow them to go out on their own to do this? How dare these testosterone-laden pieces of meat taint her view of the morning sun of Andalia? And for what? A futile attempt at getting...

The Ducha chuckled lightly at the thought, in spite of herself. _Free men now_. What were they expecting? That she would help them gain equality with Hapan females? That she would send over a proposition to the Queen Mother that would initiate the passing of a bill that would give them equal rights? Preposterous. Absolutely preposterous. Lorangal didn't even like Her Majesty either, and that didn't even take into account her Jedi heritage.

Men were mindless barbarians, no better than the common house pet. Actually, they were worse than pets; at least pets could be trained to do what you want, and they wouldn't go beyond the boundaries that you establish for them. Men were so filled with stupidity, it was a true wonder to Lorangal as to how the rest of the galaxy could survive with them running in positions of power.

And considering how badly men ran governments like the Galactic Alliance, she wondered how and why the rest of the galaxy didn't catch on with the Hapans' matriarchy yet.

Lorangal and all the other Duchas she knew agreed that men had to be reined in, lest their wild emotions and desires overwhelm them and bring about the downfall of Hapan civilization all throughout the Consortium. Acts of murder and rape from these men would run rampant, and the Consortium would devolve into chaos. Putting the leash on the actions of man was how the first Hapans were able to establish order over anarchic _male_ pirates, and Lorangal was not about to change her mind about that.

Lorangal's commlink buzzed in the pocket of her dress, and she took it out to activate it. "Yes?"

"Your Excellency," the captain of Lorangal's guard, Jehlak, replied. "Would you like us to do anything about the crowd of men outside the estate's walls?"

"Yes, Captain Jehlak," Lorangal replied. "I want you to send out two of your women and have them eliminate those testicle-sacks."

"As you wish, Milady," Jehlak replied with neither hesitation nor uncertainty. Lorangal respected that; oh, sure, she could have ordered Jehlak to have called the police to arrest the men, but Jehlak did not question even the most rash of her Duchas's decisions. The captain then cut off the connection.

Roughly two minutes later, Lorangal's bemusement turned to that of mild amusement as she watched the guards sent outside the walls begin to mow down the male protesters with lethal blaster bolts. Those who survived the initial onslaught began scurrying away like rats, but none of them were able to make it far before they, too, had joined their comrades in death._  
_

All but one of them ran, however. A tall blonde male made a foolhardy attempt to run down the guards, but he was promptly shot by both of them for his trouble.

Perhaps that will make all the other males on Andalia remember their place, Lorangal thought with a satisfied smirk. And, hopefully, it'll make sure that all other male handlers remember to keep a tighter leash on these animals.

.

"Happy birthday, dear Chume'da, happy birthday, dear Chume'da, happy birthday, dear Chume'da, happy birthday, dear Chume'da!"

The song was sung in the Hapan language by Queen Mother Tenel Ka Djo and all the other party guests, all of whom were seated around the long banquet table. At the head of the table, for her ninth birthday, was the smiling Chume'da - or Princess of Hapes - Allana Djo Solo, who had this seat for just this occasion today. Her mother, Tenel Ka, sat to her left, away from where she would normally sit. Accompanying the song was the grand fruitcake that was wheeled in by the butler, which had a total of nine flaming candles on it, all neatly arrayed along the top of the cake at perfectly-placed intervals.

Once the cake arrived, it took two servants to pick the cake up from either end and place it on the tabletop before the royally-dressed birthday girl.

"Make a wish, Chume'da," Tenel Ka offered.

Allana nodded enthusiastically and blew out the candles without hesitation. At this, everyone around the table clapped and cheered, while the servants, bodyguards, and butler only clapped, as it was custom.

"Well, Allana, what did you wish for?" Tenel Ka asked.

The Queen Mother noticed that her daughter's smile suddenly looked more generic than not. "That I could ride a rancor," she said with mirth.

Everyone chuckled and giggled, although Tenel Ka could feel the small tinge of pain in her daughter's voice as much as she could sense it through the Force. The Queen Mother knew that her Chume'da wanted to say, _That I could have my father here with us_. But as young as she was, Allana was smart enough not to bring that up on a joyous occasion such as this.

For that, Tenel Ka felt more proud of her daughter. Even after all these years, Tenel Ka herself still felt a tinge of grief herself from both Jacen's descent to the dark side of the Force and his subsequent death by the hands of his own sister, Jaina, who was one of the party guests right now. If Tenel Ka wasn't convinced that killing Jacen - no, Caedus - was the necessary thing to do to end the Second Galactic Civil War, she wouldn't know if she could still look Jaina in the eye right now - especially since Tenel Ka felt Jacen's dying warning that saved her and Allana from Imperial Moff Drikl Lecersen's nanovirus attack during the Battle of Shedu Maad.

It was necessary, Tenel Ka thought. Even though he ultimately saved his ex-lover and daughter from death, Jacen was, in the end, irredeemable for all that he had done.

"Next time we're on Dathomir, honey!" Allana's grandmother, Leia Organa Solo, called further down the table. She and her husband, Han, along with their own daughter, Jaina, had memorized the Hapan translation of "Happy Birthday" for just this occasion.

Tenel Ka was grateful for Leia's humorous interjection. Though she always blanketed her emotions in the Force when it came to Jacen, she was doubtful of her ability to hide her emotions. Leia's lightening of the mood right then, as minor as it was, was enough to bring a considerable measure of joy in Tenel Ka's thought.

And no doubt Allana's, too, Tenel Ka thought.

"You said that last time!" Allana mock-countered with more genuine enthusiasm this time.

"Hey, you got to ride the _Falcon_ then, that's worth three rancor rides," Han jokingly countered back.

Everyone laughed at that, but the laughter became even more forced among the guests, who did not care for the fact that a man spoke out of turn, even if it was just mild teasing to the Chume'da. Only Tenel Ka and Allana's chuckles felt at all natural to Han's reply.

"Well, everyone, let's cut the cake now!" Tenel Ka announced. She signaled the butler, who was behind her. "Jerok, if you would be so kind as to provide the tooth to cut the cake?"

The butler promptly nodded and removed the rancor tooth, brought in straight from Dathomir for Allana's birthday, from the holster on his belt. He then proceeded to approach Allana to give her the tooth.

It was then that Tenel Ka's danger sense struck.

She abruptly stood up from her seat and used the Force to send her chair flying back against Jerok. By then, the butler had already impaled the rancor tooth through the back of the chair, which would have stabbed through the Queen Mother's back if not for her quick action, and Jerok went flying back to the wall behind him.

Before he even landed in a heap on his hindquarters, the guards stationed at the banquet hall's exit already had their blasters out and aimed at the downed butler as they came rushing toward him.

"Don't move!" the guard on the left demanded from Jerok.

Even as everyone at the table - Han, Leia, Jaina, and Allana included - were still flustered over what just happened, Jerok said to his wrist chrono, "Attack, now!"

The guard who warned the butler stopped in her tracks with her companion and shot him straight in the chest, killing him instantly.

But scarcely a second later, the skylight above the banquet hall shattered into dozens of pieces of glass, which were then followed by several Hapan men descending to the banquet floor on rappelling lines. As the men descended with one hand on their harnesses, they were firing their blasters with their other hands.

As the males' unified attack commenced, few of the guests decided to get out of danger by scurrying beneath the banquet table. Everyone else who wasn't a Force-sensitive decided to stand up from their seats and begin trading fire with the invaders while simultaneously trying to find cover elsewhere; it was expected of Hapans to fight, no matter what. The guests who now hid would have their reputations badly damaged. Those with lightsabers - like Leia and Jaina - were deflecting the descending blaster bolts while shooting their own blasters at their enemies.

Tenel Ka herself already had her lightsaber out and activated, deflecting the bolts back at the men while escorting Allana beneath the table. Once she noted, through her peripheral vision, that Allana was as safe as she could be under the table, Tenel Ka returned most of her attention back to the invading males.

Only three of the attacking men had died from blasterfire upon their descent, their corpses dropping to the floor. The rest had managed to hit the floor running and firing, unceasing in their firefights against their opponents.

It wasn't long before Tenel Ka found herself facing a stocky but no less handsome dark-skinned male who had holstered his blaster, even though lethal bolts still flew everywhere; it seemed this one was quite confident that his individual confrontation with the Queen Mother wouldn't be interrupted by friendly or enemy fire. Whether he was incredibly stupid or incredibly confident was irrelevant to Tenel Ka; what was relevant right now was the lightwhip that he produced from his utility belt and which he then flung out against the Queen Mother, fully active.

Tenel Ka caught the whip on her lightsaber blade and rotated her grip around so that her opponent was pulled in toward her, ready to be struck down by a kick that the Queen Mother planned to plant in his sternum. But instead of being thrown off-balance from the move, the man used the momentum to propel himself into a flip, which he then used to disengage his lightwhip from Tenel Ka's blazing green blade. That move caused Tenel Ka to be thrown off-balance instead, allowing the man to plant both feet against the Queen Mother's face.

Tenel Ka then flew back and over the table to crash on her back against the floor. A second later, she saw her opponent descend from the tabletop and slash down with his lightwhip. The Queen Mother quickly rolled off to her left and leaped back up to her feet to rush back to her opponent. By then, however, the man had already turned in her direction and slashed out his lightwhip again. This time, however, Tenel Ka dodged the move entirely while not even breaking stride, which then allowed her to slash her blade forward in a cut that would have cut him in two diagonally across the chest.

But the man quickly ducked beneath the strike and came back up to deliver a solid uppercut beneath Tenel Ka's jaw. She stumbled back in pain, but recovered quickly enough to see the lightwhip come back for her, prompting her to jump off to her right. The Queen Mother landed in a graceful tumble across the floor, and she cam back up in a crouch, ready for the next lightwhip attack that came her way. She caught it on her blade again, but instead of pulling it in a vain hope that she could get her opponent to be thrown off-balance, she slashed her blade down to outright yank the lightwhip from his hands.

It worked. As the pommel of the still-active whip flew toward her, Tenel Ka sprung up from her crouch and slashed her blade down in time against the lightwhip's pommel, deactivating it in an instant. She looked back to her opponent and flung her lightsaber forward to spear him. But he ducked beneath it and scurried beneath the table.

_Allana!_ Tenel Ka thought worriedly.

Even as she recalled the lightsaber to her hand, which had skewered one of the gun-toting male attackers from behind, Tenel Ka was already on the run back to the table. She slid beneath it just in time for the rancor toothed-pommel of her weapon to smack back into her sole palm, and then she looked in the direction that her daughter would be hiding.

She wasn't there, and neither was Tenel Ka's opponent. The Queen Mother looked to the other direction, only to find that the former whip-wielder was absent there, too.

Her danger sense spiked again, and she looked ahead to find that her opponent was on his belly and aiming a blaster at her. She deflected the resultant shot, and it ricocheted back toward the shooter, hitting the gun square in the barrel. The blaster flew out of the man's hands, causing him to wince from the gun's abrupt departure from his grip. In the five seconds that the man was distracted by his pain, Tenel Ka used the Force to propel herself out from the table and rush toward her opponent.

The man recovered from his brief pain by then, and he already pushed himself back up to his feet. Seeing that he was unarmed against a Force-sensitive with a lightsaber, he turned and ran toward one of his fallen comrades, snatching the blaster up from the fellow's dead hand before swinging around and firing more bolts against the Queen Mother. This time, however, he decided to scurry off to the side so that Tenel Ka wouldn't be able to deflect one of his bolts back toward him.

Yet, even as he fired on the run, Tenel Ka had no less difficulty deflecting blaster bolts away from herself, and often, she would deflect them back to one of the still-living attackers, who either went down dead or injured. And as she chased after him, she only managed to get closer.

Finally, when Tenel Ka got close enough, she slashed the blaster out of the man's hand, but before she could swing her blade to strike him down, he hurriedly grabbed at her wrist with one hand and punched her across the face with the other. The Queen Mother then crumpled to the floor, allowing the man to yank the lightsaber out of her hand before delivering a knee into her torso.

Wielding the blade now, the man struck down with it, but Tenel Ka used the Force to prevent it from digging through her chest. She then extended the invisible barrier to send her attacker flying back, where he hit the wall behind him before collapsing to the floor. The lightsaber clattered away from his grip before Tenel Ka called it back to her with a single motion, reactivating the blade the second it reached her hand.

But the man was back on his feet again and already hurrying for another blaster, which had clattered away from its wielder upon his death. Tenel Ka rushed to reach him, but she had to slow down when her danger sense warned her of an attack from behind. She ducked beneath the vibroblade strike from the male behind her, which allowed her to impale her blade right through his chest. But that brief distraction gave her opponent throughout the attack to rest his hand upon the blaster he intended to grab.

However, as soon as he had his hand on it, it was just as promptly pinned there by the rancor toothed-knife that was meant to cut the birthday cake. The man screamed in pain before looking up to see that his own attacker was Chume'da Allana Djo Solo herself, who exchanged his look with one of determination before yanking the blade out of his hand and impaling it through his forehead.

Tenel Ka's opponent died by the hands of her daughter just as the rest of the battle around them had died down. One or two more male attackers were shot dead - the last of them having decided to die fighting than to suffer Hapan interrogation and torture - before the entire banquet hall went completely quiet.

The dead stillness in the hall was disrupted by a rough squishing sound as Allana pulled the knife out of her victim's head. She then looked out to the survivors of the battle - who included Han, Leia, Jaina, and her mother - and dryly said, "Some birthday."


	2. Chapter 2

Following the battle in the banquet hall, the bodies of the male attackers were promptly incinerated in the Fountain Palace's furnace in the lower levels. The bodies of the guests who died during the battle, on the other hand, were taken by their escorts who had waited outside the Palace for the duration of Allana's birthday party. Needless to say, none of those escorts were happy that they had to bring their charges back to whatever city on Hapes or whichever planet in the Consortium that each of the guests hailed from.

But that wasn't what mattered right now to Han and Leia as they sat in the two guest seats of their granddaughter's luxurious bedroom. Across from them was Allana herself, who averted her gaze from her grandparents as she sat on the edge of her bed.

"Allana, are you okay?" Leia asked out of concern.

"I'm fine, Grandma," Allana replied, still not looking at either of her grandparents in the eye. "And I don't wanna talk about what happened tonight."

"Look, c'mon, kid, your grandma and your aunt are worried," Han chipped in. "I mean, what you did to that man-"

"It's what I had to do," Allana said, her eyes still elsewhere. "And I don't see Aunt Jaina around here, if she's so worried."

"We don't need Aunt Jaina's help," Leia explained. "She knows that your grandpa and I can talk you through this ourselves."

"Talk me through what?" Allana asked. Still, her eyes were focused on the wall off to the side.

"You didn't have to kill that man, especially not the way you did," Leia said. "Your mom could've handled him. You were supposed to stay out of sight for your own safety."

"Is that it?" Allana asked, her gaze finally focused in on her grandmother.

Leia shook her head. "Allana, your mother, Aunt Jaina, and I, we... Well, we felt something from you when you killed that man."

"Well, then, why didn't you just say so?" Allana asked impatiently.

Han and Leia exchanged confused looks before conveying that sustained glance on their granddaughter. "You're not going to ask what it was that we felt?" Leia asked.

"I know what I felt better than you do," Allana said with a more assertive tone.

Both Solo adults were taken aback by their grandchild's attitude. But Leia recovered first as she took on the diplomatic tone that she typically reserved for stubborn political opponents.

"Allana," she said, "we're worried because we felt the dark side coming from-"

"You. Don't. Know. What. I. Felt," Allana interrupted and emphasized. Her tone was so even and yet so aggressive at the same time that it was terrifying to find in the mannerisms of a little girl.

Again, Han and Leia were struck silent. But before either of them could say anything, Leia and Allana perked up, and Han could see that they were feeling something through the Force.

"What is it?" he asked his wife.

"Tenel Ka," was all she said.

The three of them then made a beeline for the door to head to the throne room, where Tenel Ka currently was.

.

Tenel Ka could very well see an influx of assassination attempts on her life, she thought. At least she could predict who might be responsible this time as she looked over her datapad in her throne room. She would have to make apology letters to the families of each of the dead guests; not that it would curb the attempts on her life at all, but as Queen Mother, it was one of the duties that she had to see through, especially since she had invited the Duchas and nobles who were now deceased.

The Queen Mother readied herself for the first apology letter, her datapad placed on her lap as she sat in her throne, when her 'pad's screen suddenly received static. After a few seconds, the static increased until the blank word document that she was to write the letter on faded completely to be replaced by total blackness. The blackness lasted for all of two seconds before that, too, was replaced by a dark, silhouetted figure - his/her features obscured by the shadow cast by the video feed - against a contrasting light blue background.

"Your Majesty," the figure said. The voice was given a filter to mask the stranger's identity so that Tenel Ka could only hear a deep bass voice that she knew - even with her limited knowledge of communication filters - was not part of the speaker's natural vocals. "I am surprised that you and your daughter survived the attack that my men had brought upon." The figure shook his/her head, as if he/she was in disappointment. "And to think that Flerand could take you on. Flerand was the male with the lightwhip who I assigned to fight you, in case you didn't figure that out."

"Who are you?" Tenel Ka asked tersely. "How and why are you contacting me?"

"I am the leader of the Free Men, Milady," the figure replied, with a mocking tone at the title that he ascribed to Tenel Ka. "_How_ I am contacting you is of no concern to you. But _why_ is.

"You see, you know as well as I do, along with every Hapan worth his or her salt, that ever since the foundation of the Consortium, women have been ruling over men with an iron fist throughout the Transitory Mists. We men have been treated unfairly as second-class citizens for thousands of years, as if we were nothing more than beasts of burden to be enslaved instead of sentient beings with the rights that every sentient being deserves. This has been occurring even as the rest of the galaxy - at least the mainstream galactic society - had long accepted male-female equality for thousands of years now.

"So tell me, _Your Majesty..._" His tone spat acid at her title. "Why then, throughout the entirety of your reign so far, have you not yet remedied the sexism and misandry that all of your ancestors had gladly propagated? You know, as well as I do, that men can be better than this. We can do as well as any Hapan woman in any profession, any academic, that is available to the Consortium! We can be doctors, we can be soldiers, we can be lawyers, we can be all these things, if you only give us the chance!

"But no, you haven't done any of that. Instead, even as you've worked with men before, knowing full well their own capabilities, you still hold up this matriarchy as a symbol for all that is good in the Hapes Consortium! You and every other Ducha across the sixty-three worlds of your precious tyranny deny us the rights that we deserve, as any being deserves, not just you women!

"So, tell me, why we shouldn't be as equal to you in every way possible?"

Tenel Ka was rendered speechless for a moment. For the longest time, ever since she took the throne, she never once gave thought to male equality, even after all her times with men like Zekk, Lowie, Tesar, Anakin, and...

Jacen.

She shoved her initial thoughts away to get back to the time at hand. "Well, for one thing," she said in as diplomatic a tone as she could muster under the circumstance, "an assassination attempt on the Hapan royal bloodline is not a reasonable course of action to convince one of your ideals."

"You left us no choice!" the figure argued. "Women like you, Ducha Lorangal on Andalia, and all the other Duchas I know won't listen to us! If you're not going to let us have our say in what goes on in the Consortium, if you're not going to let us put our own efforts and initiatives into what happens in our Consortium, and its relations to the rest of the galaxy, why _shouldn't_ we try to kill you? Why _shouldn't_ we try to depose this government of its oppressive matriarchy? Why shouldn't we let this become a democracy for _all_ to have a say in the Consortium's affairs? Huh? HUH?!"

Tenel Ka didn't bother to acknowledge that argument. "Whoever you are, you will be found, you will be caught, and you will be executed for your treasonous attempts to assassinate the royal bloodline. Do you understand that?"

"I understand that _you_ will fall, and so will your disgusting matriarchy," the figure replied, his tone full of bile and loathing. "Just as slavery has been overthrown, so, too, will this government run exclusively by one sex meet its end." At that, the image of the mysterious figure disappeared to be replaced by the blank word document again.

Tenel Ka took a moment to compose herself before she did anything more. When that moment ended, her danger sense spiked, and she instinctively threw the datapad forward. Once it was several meters away, she erected a Force-shield in time to protect herself from the explosion that not only destroyed the 'pad, but which was also powerful enough to destroy the throne room's door up ahead.

As soon as the explosion passed, two guards rushed in through the smoke that now encompassed half of the throne room. They both had their blasters brandished and their expressions worried.

"Your Majesty!" one of them called. "Are you alright?"

Tenel Ka nodded absently as she stood up from her throne to leave. "I am unharmed. I shall retire to my quarters for the night. But I will need a new datapad in the morning." As she passed them, she added, "And someone to clean up this room."

Just like that, she off to her bedroom, with her thoughts on nothing more than the simple act of returning to her bedchambers for what she hoped would be a good night's sleep.

Because, right now, she didn't want to think about anything else for tonight.

Halfway to her bedroom, she was met up by her daughter and the Solos.

"Tenel Ka!" Leia announced urgently. "Are you-"

The Queen Mother raised a hand to halt the older woman. "I am fine, Leia. It was merely another assassination attempt." She acted as if it was as common as the cancellation of a diplomatic function; then again, in the Hapes Consortium, it might as well have been as common for the government's ruler. She then looked down upon her daughter. "Allana, you are well, I assume?"

"As well as I was when you first asked me after the battle, Mom," Allana answered evenly.

While Han and Leia looked at their sole grandchild with obvious concern, Tenel Ka took what her only child said at face value. "Good," she said before looking back up to the elder Solos. "I will be in my bedroom if you need me. Have a good night, all of you." She proceeded to walk past the three of them.

Han stopped her by gently grabbing onto the shoulder that still had a full arm on it. "Tenel Ka, what's wrong? You seem more rattled than usual from an assassination attempt."

"Leia would know better than you," Tenel Ka said in a more forceful tone than she intended. "She could read my Force-presence." Too late, the Queen Mother realized what was wrong with that statement.

The older woman shook her head with worry. "That's the thing, I can't sense anything from you right now. You're shielding your emotions from me."

Deciding that the only way to save face now was to not even acknowledge Leia's statement, Tenel Ka outright ignored her and returned her attention to the only man in the quartet. "As I have said, Han," Tenel Ka said as calmly as she could as she shrugged herself out of his grasp, "I am fine. Good night." She turned and resumed her pace for her quarters without anymore fuss.

.

"You should listen to her when she tells you to leave her alone," Allana said to her grandparents as soon as her mother disappeared down the hallway. When Han and Leia turned to look down at her in consternation, the Chume'da continued with, "She _is_ the Queen Mother, you know."

Leia crossed her arms. "And I suppose we should listen to you because _you're_ the Chume'da?"

Allana shrugged nonchalantly. "Something like that."

Leia opened her mouth to say something, only to find herself flabbergasted when she saw Han turn around to head to his and his wife's guest bedchamber. "Where are you going?" she asked her husband as she followed along, incidentally forgetting about her granddaughter in the process.

"To get a good night's sleep, like Tenel Ka said," Han replied.

"What, you're actually listening to Allana?" Leia asked.

"No," Han emphasized even though he didn't slow down in his progress for the bedroom. "To Tenel Ka."

"So we're just going to let this hang?" Leia asked.

"Yes," Han answered.

Leia stopped in her tracks for a moment before she shook her head and resumed her pace for her husband. She eventually caught up with him, and by then, they had left Allana far behind. Leia soon stood in front of Han and stopped him.

"Han, we have to resolve this," Leia insisted.

"Don't you see, Leia?" Han asked. "We're not gonna get anywhere tonight. Allana's not ready to talk about it, so we'll sit this one out for now."

Leia bared her teeth. "Jacen was never ready to talk about it, and look how that turned out."

Han's expression dropped into that of renewed grief. He and Leia had tried to get through to Jacen in the early days of the Second Civil War, and it still hurt him every time he thought about it that his older son had to be put down, since he was beyond reason as Darth Caedus.

Leia stepped back and shook her head in the realization of what she just said. "I'm sorry, Han, I didn't mean that. It's just that-"

Han held up a hand to silence her. "Leia. Allana never went through the same things Jacen went through. She'll be fine." He would have kicked himself for how uncertain his tone was, given how it reflected too much of what he felt. It was bad enough that his wife had the Force; it was even worse that she could read past his best sabacc face any day of the week. And this wasn't his best today.

Leia shook her head. "If you felt what Jaina and I felt, you wouldn't bother to kid yourself."

Han looked at his wife in confusion. "Didn't Tenel Ka sense Allana's darkness, too?"

"I wouldn't trust Tenel Ka right now," Leia said. "You saw how she just brushed Allana off like that, like nothing was wrong."

"Yeah, that's true," Han admitted. "But what can we do about Allana?"

Leia sighed. "I don't know. I just don't know. Maybe you're right. We won't get anywhere tonight. Let's go."

Han nodded and followed his wife back to their bedroom.


	3. Chapter 3

Tenel Ka had her finger on the control panel that would open the door to her bedchambers when she noticed someone approaching off to her right.

"Cousin," Trista Zel said. Tenel Ka could tell that it was Trista and not Taryn due to her Force-presence, and the fact that Taryn was off somewhere with her husband Zekk, resolving some political dispute in the Outer Rim as part of Zekk's duties as a Jedi Knight. If it weren't for those bits of information, the Queen Mother doubted that she could tell her cousins apart otherwise. "Off to bed already? I thought you had to write those apology letters for the guests who died earlier tonight."

Tenel Ka was about to tell her cousin that something had come up to prevent her from doing so, but then it clicked in her head. She dropped her hand away from the control panel and turned to face her cousin completely. "Trista, I am glad that you are here. My datapad received a message from an unknown figure who told me that he was responsible for the attack at the birthday party today."

"How do you know that it was a man who sent you the message?" Trista asked.

"Let us simply say that it is pretty conclusive that it was a man," Tenel Ka said. "I just do not know which man exactly. The point is, though, that I need you to lead an investigation on the datapad."

"Very well, if you could just give it to me-"

Tenel Ka shook her head. "It was destroyed. My datapad exploded as soon as the message was over."

Trista raised her forehead as if she were impressed. "Some kind of program transmitted to try to kill you. And there wouldn't be anything left to investigate, theoretically. Whoever this man is, he certainly is intelligent; or he may have a female programmer on his side."

"So does this mean that you will not be able to lead an investigation, Trista?" Tenel Ka asked.

"No, I can still do it," Trista assured the Queen Mother.

"Alright, then get to it," Tenel Ka ordered, then turned back to press the button that would open her bedchambers' door.

"Wait," Trista said.

Tenel Ka patiently turned back to her cousin again. "Yes?"

"For my investigation, cousin," Trista said in a formal tone, "may I ask who gave you the datapad?"

Tenel Ka took a moment to recall who gave her the datapad earlier today. Her eyes widened in realization. "It was Poik, one of the chamberlains."

"Thank you, cousin," Trista said with a nod. "I will start with her. Have a good night." She turned and walked off in the direction of the chamberlain chambers.

Tenel Ka was then left alone to finally open the door to her bedchamber and walk in to try to get a good night's sleep.

But when she was finally in bed, she found that sleep could not find her. The messenger's words resounded through her mind, depriving her of the rest she needed as she thought about what he said.

She told him that assassination attempts on her life would not convince her of his cause. Yet she also understood why he would send men to try to kill her and Allana. Indeed, Tenel Ka never did attempt to pass any legislation that would give men equal rights to women in the Hapes Consortium, even though she did not actually believe in the sexual segregation herself. And it was not as if the thought of equalizing men was a very popular notion in the Consortium; she doubted that there were many Duchas who wanted to see men working on equal terms with women in the Consortium.

Tenel Ka tried to rationalize in her mind that the reason that she would not stray from the oppression against men because the assassination attempts on her and Allana would only increase. Yes, that was it. It would only get worse. And Tenel Ka doubted that she could protect herself and Allana forever against even more resistance. It was bad enough that she was a Force-sensitive and former Jedi ruling the Consortium, and it was for reasons like that that groups of Duchas like the Heritage Council wanted to overthrow her. And that was at a time when the Consortium at large did not know who Allana's father was...

_Damn it_, Tenel Ka thought to herself. _Why is this always coming back to Jacen? I thought we all got over that by now_.

There were times when she regretted telling Jacen to keep his relationship to Allana a secret from his friends and family. After all, after Darth Caedus died, Allana was given over to Han and Leia for protection, and they did a good job keeping her safe, even if she was nevertheless placed in jeopardy time after time.

When Tenel Ka really thought about it, she figured that if she had allowed Jacen's friends and family to know about his relationship to Allana, he would still be alive, and he would have never fallen to the dark side of the Force. In fact, they may all have very well have done a better job in helping Jacen cope; they could have stopped the Second Galactic Civil War sooner, they may have stopped Lumiya, they may have...

Tenel Ka shook herself out of these thoughts. How could she still be on about this after so many years? Had she not reconciled that with everyone else by now? And why was it trying back into the issue of men's equality in the Consortium?

_Just as slavery fell_... The Queen Mother thought back to what the messenger was talking about. She knew that he was talking about the downfall of slavery that occurred roughly a year before, which began on Klatooine. From there, it spread like wildfire across the galaxy until, after only a few months or so, the practice of slavery itself became illegal to perform anywhere in the jurisdiction of the Galactic Alliance. Yes, it had seen much bloodshed, but many had said that it was worth it to see to the downfall of a degrading market that neither the Old Republic or the New Republic had dared to fight.

Tenel Ka herself, who had been to Klatooine to help facilitate its membership into the Alliance, thought that it was great that the practice of slavery had fallen, even after all the violence that the mass liberation saw, but she still had mixed feelings as to whether or not it was worth all that death.

Now she wondered whether it would be worth it to see men gain equality to women in the Hapes Consortium.

.

Somewhere outside the territories of either the Hapes Consortium or the Galactic Alliance, in an uninhabited system with nothing more remarkable to it than a small asteroid field, Droma the Ryn entered passed through the airlock of the unidentified Hapan shuttle to board the ship itself. With him were two male members of his fellow species, both brandishing blasters, following behind. The trio was met up by two Hapan men who looked more like pirates than men who were owned by Duchas or aristocrats.

_Of course they would cast off that image_, Droma thought.

"You want us to follow you," he said to the Hapans.

The Hapans nodded wordlessly and turned to lead the way down the hallway to a nearby door. There, one of the Hapans entered a code on a touchpad next to the door that opened it up, and the other Hapan waved through the entrance.

Droma and his companions nodded their thanks and entered. Inside, they found themselves in a very sparsely-decorated office, with very few pieces of Hapan artwork and other miscellanea, amidst extraordinarily low lighting. Near the back of the room was a desk and a chair behind it, with a figure cloaked completely in the room's darkness; undoubtedly, he was the leader of this new male liberation group that the Ryn Network heard was called the Free Men._  
_

"Please, Mister Droma," the leader of the Free Men said as he waved to one of the two seats in front of the desk. His voice was a low bass; a filter, Droma figured. It seemed that this guy had some major trust issues even to those he would have to ally with. "Have-"

"A seat?" Droma asked.

The leader laughed, which, even through the bass filter, was surprisingly mirthful. "There is no need to demonstrate your people's fortune-telling abilities," he said. He added, "Not that it would have been heard for anyone else to conclude, anyway. I would rather we leave behind all stereotypes, if that's okay with you, Mister Droma."

"Fine by me," Droma said as he moved to take one of the two chairs. "So, I take it you don't want your identity revealed."

"That's correct."

"Well, then, is there a name I can call you by then?"

"You may refer to me as Mister Leader, as silly as that may sound," the Free Men's leader said.

"Alright then, Mister Leader," Droma said with a wry smile. "Let's talk business now. You-"

Mr. Leader held up a hand to stop Droma from saying anymore. "Not yet, Mister Droma. We still have one more guest to wait for. Then we can talk business."

"Well, how long do we have to wait?" Droma asked.

"Just another few minutes, at least," Mr. Leader answered. "In the meantime, would you like anything, Mister Droma? Tea, caf, biscuits?"

"I'm fine, thanks," Droma said. "But what say we pass the time with some idle conversation?"

"I wouldn't mind that," Mr. Leader replied.

The two of them talked for a few minutes, though Droma could glean nothing from the mysterious man that could give away his identity. His likes and interests were very general, very typically Hapan, except for matters that concerned the matriarchy, obviously.

Finally, the door behind Droma opened again, and he turned to find a male Bothan, alone, with no assistants or guards, walk into the room. He stopped in his tracks to take a brief survey of the room and Droma's guards before Mr. Leader said, "Ah, Mister Blink, how good of you to join us." He waved to Droma. "Mister Blink, I am Mister Leader, and this is Mister Droma. He is the head of the Ryn Network founded during the Yuuzhan Vong War, and which had served as a great help to the Galactic Alliance's war against the invaders. Mister Droma, this is Mister Blink. He is a member of the Freedom Flight, which I'm sure you more than well know was responsible for propagating the anti-slavery movement throughout the galaxy last year."

Droma nodded to Mr. Blink. "Hello."

The Bothan nodded back. "Good day, Mister Droma." He focused his attention on Mr. Leader, who wordlessly waved to the next seat for Blink to take.

Once the Bothan was seated, Mr. Leader folded his hands upon his desktop and said, "Now that you're both here, let's begin. Both of your organizations have provided a great deal of help to the galaxy at large in the past, as I just said, primarily when it came to the general area of espionage. Now, since both of your organizations are very diverse when it comes to the involvement of sentient beings, your organizations would be at greater risk of exposure, especially once this movement really gets off the ground. So then, I will hear from you gentlemen as to what exactly your respective organizations can contribute down the line."

.

Tenel Ka managed to receive only two hours worth of sleep, and she was promptly awakened by the Hapan sun that streamed through her window, unblocked by any curtains or drapes. The Queen Mother never did like to oversleep, so she refused to have anything that would increase the chances that she may not fulfill all of her royal duties for the day.

Now she wished she had a couple of drapes installed to her window. She moved groggily as she dressed herself in one of her best dresses and moved to the door, where she felt Trista's presence waiting outside. The Queen Mother palmed open the door to her chamber to find her cousin standing there, looking well-rested, with a ready datapad.

"Here, cousin," Trista said as she handed over the 'pad to the Queen Mother. "You look terrible, by the way, and it's not because of your dress."

"Thank you," Tenel Ka replied as she took the datapad, ignoring her cousin's remark. "Now I can get to writing those apology letters. How goes your investigation?"

Trista shook her head. "It hit a dead end already," she reported.

Tenel Ka looked at her in surprise.

"I asked Poik the chamberlain about the datapad," she said. "She said that the only thing she knew was that she received it from the royal manufacturer beneath the Palace. I went to the manufacturer herself, and she gave me the recording of the 'pad that nearly killed you to show me that there was nothing wrong coming out of it."

"The manufacturer could be lying," Tenel Ka suggested. "She could be in alliance with whoever was responsible for the attack last night."

"She could be," Trista said. "But right now, we don't have anymore evidence, hard or soft, that would suggest that she was responsible. The manufacturer did suggest, however, that it's possible that whoever contacted you before the datapad blew up simply hacked you, as I said."

"That still does not mean that she is telling the truth," Tenel Ka countered.

Trista shrugged. "Maybe not. But for now, we have nothing else to go on, and the datapad's destruction left nothing else to investigate."

Tenel Ka sighed. "Very well."

"Will that be all, cousin?" Trista asked.

Tenel Ka nodded. "Yes, that will be all." But then she changed her mind just as Trista turned away. "Actually, no, that will not be all."

Trista stopped and turned back to face her cousin, her expression expectant but polite.

"Trista, I know this may seem like an odd question," Tenel Ka began, "but answer honestly. Do you think that I am a fair Queen Mother?"

Trista's expression turned into one of confusion. "That _is_ an odd question. Well, of course, I think you're a fair Queen Mother, cousin. In fact, you may very well be the fairest Queen Mother that the Consortium has ever had. Why do you ask?"

Tenel Ka ignored her question. "Trista, what do you think of men? Personally?"

Trista shrugged nonchalantly. "I think they have their place in the Consortium."

"But?"

"But what?" Trista asked.

Tenel Ka hesitated before she asked her next question. "Do you not think that men deserve to be equal to that of men in the Consortium?"

Trista now looked at her cousin with concern. "Cousin, what exactly did the man on your datapad say to you?"

Again, Tenel Ka hesitated. "He made me question my actions as Queen Mother. He said that even though I worked with men before, and that I know that they can be as capable of tasks as any woman, I did nothing to rid the Consortium of its matriarchy, a system that he says that I do not believe in."

"Well, do you?" Trista asked.

For the third time in the conversation, Tenel Ka felt hesitant. "It is the way of the Consortium," Tenel Ka said. "It was enough that it should be challenged with not one, but two Jedi Queen Mothers. Equalizing men in the Consortium would spread chaos throughout the Transitory Mists."

"Quite the political answer," Trista pointed out.

"Is there any other?" Tenel Ka countered.

Trista nodded in acknowledgement. "Good point," she said. "Will that be all now, cousin?"

Tenel Ka nodded. "For now."

With that, Trista walked off without anymore fuss.


	4. Chapter 4

Lorangal settled herself down at the head of her long dinner table in preparation for her evening meal. The only other people in the room were the butler, who Lorangal was sure she heard the name of before, but didn't bother to memorize, and the two guards, all of whom stood beside the exit of the dining hall.

The Ducha waved the butler over from his position. "You," she said, "I am ready for my dinner."

The butler - a dark-haired middle-aged man who, like most Hapan males, still looked attractive enough to make younger women in the greater galaxy do a double-take - nodded like the subservient dog that he was. After proceeding down the long table to his great Ducha, he asked, "What would you like for tonight, madam?"

"Two servings of Andalian trout and one serving of thakitillo," Lorangal replied. "And a glass of Gallinore vintage. And do be prompt about it, Andrade." She wasn't sure that was his name, but what did she care?

The butler nodded again. "Very well," he said before turning to leave the dining hall.

Before he left, Lorangal added, "Oh, and do not try to murder me, Andrade. One butler trying to murder the Queen Mother is enough; another to murder a _mere_ Ducha-" Her tone was completely snide at the way she said _Ducha_ "-would simply be redundant."

The butler stopped at the door when the Ducha spoke, and when she was finished, he looked back with a warm smile. "I will try not to," he said as he chuckled.

"I did not give you permission to laugh," Lorangal said, completely serious.

The butler's expression dropped back into his professional manner before he turned back for the door and continued the rest of the way out.

Several minutes later, Lorangal did not look happy even as "Andrade" returned to the dining hall pushing a hovercart with a closed tray of food on it and a glass of Gallinore vintage in it, just as the Ducha asked.

"I should have you whipped for keeping me waiting so long," Lorangal said with contempt.

The butler said nothing. It was the same contempt he received from the Ducha every night, with little variety, for the past two months of service for something he had very little control over; oh, sure, Lorangal never did have him whipped - at least, not for keeping her waiting during dinnertime - but still, she said those things to him for something that the female cooks were responsible for.

Nevertheless, the butler always took her abuse in stride, just as he did now. With the same redundant professionalism he provided to his mistress, he placed the hovercart to a stop next to Lorangal and carefully picked the tray off the cart to deliver it on the table in front of the Ducha before placing his glass of alcohol next to her. He then pulled the lid off of the tray to reveal the steaming thakitillo and trout.

"It looks delicious," Lorangal said in the same tone she used to tell the butler that he should be whipped. She then stuck her fork in one of the fish, cut into it with her knife, and offered the resultant piece up to her abused servant. "The first piece goes to you, as it should."

The butler looked understandably apprehensive. Anyone who knew the basics of Hapan politics understood that what Lorangal was doing to him now wasn't because she was being nice; she was just trying to make sure that her food wasn't poisoned. But the butler did as he was told and he leaned down to eat the piece of fish; again, like a dog eating out of its master's hands.

After a few seconds, the butler looked down with a relieved smile, knowing that he was not, in fact, poisoned. But that apprehension returned when Lorangal cut off another piece and held it up for "Andrade" to eat. Again, the same results came about, with the thakitillo being the last that the butler had to eat for his Ducha. Once he had his piece of thakitillo, Lorangal made him have a small sip of wine, which (theoretically) proved that the meal was safe enough.

Seeing that there were no other practical tests to prove that the meal was safe, Lorangal waved the butler off to enjoy her meal. "That will be all for tonight, Andrade," she said.

"Oh, I don't think so, Milady," the butler said.

Lorangal looked back up to him and was about to set upon him an angry glare before he exhaled. The Ducha quickly turned away from the green gas that came from his mouth, and she rushed away from the table as the toxic mist encompassed the entirety of the table. The two guards had already fired their lethal bolts at the butler, but they couldn't tell if they had hit anything thanks to the gas.

As for Lorangal herself, she gave a flustered look back at the gas; since she didn't know better, she had a feeling that the meal she was given, which was supposed to have been tested by the butler, had some kind of chemical, or chemicals, in them that, when combined from the entirety of the meal, made him exhale a gas that would try to kill Lorangal.

_That's inventive_, the Ducha thought before her attention was turned to the opening of the dining hall's doors.

They weren't opened so much as they were barged in, for the structure itself was knocked from its hinges and a stream of male courtesans and servants - all of them dressed in loose-fitting, open-shirted tunics with similarly loose-fitting pants of all colors - came rushing in, all of them brandishing blasters. They quickly overtook the two female guards, taking them by surprise and knocking them to the floor before each of the guards was executed by a different male in the crowd.

With the guards now taken care of, the men returned their attention to the still-living Ducha, who aimed their blasters at her.

"Don't move!" one of the courtesans demanded at the forefront.

"And who am I to listen to the threats of a man?" Lorangal asked. "Do you even know how to operate those things?"

Gritting his teeth, the man who told Lorangal not to move squeezed the trigger.

But the lethal red bolt that went flying for her hit the invisible shield around her that flared to purple once the bolt contacted with it.

The Ducha smiled in contempt. "I guess you do," she said with a mock-impressed attitude. "Now if only you could impress me more in bed." That last comment was aimed at this particular courtesan's inability to sexually please her without an temporary enhancement formula.

She then took the remote from her dress pocket, which she used to activate her personal anti-blaster shield just as the men barged into her dining hall, and Lorangal then pressed another button. This time, the males' collective attention shifted to the corners of the dining hall's roof, where turrets suddenly appeared and aimed themselves at the intruders.

"Move out!" the courtesan who shot at her - Lorangal liked to call him Softy - declared to his comrades.

But they had scarcely turned away before the turrets began firing down upon them, mowing them down where they stood, just as Lorangal saw the men outside her home get slaughtered by those guards.

It was utterly satisfying.

Those closer to the back of the group were only mildly luckier, for though they made it out of the dining hall and out of the autoturrets' range, they were just as quickly confronted by several Hapan guards all around them.

Lorangal walked over to the exit of the dining hall at a leisurely pace, and by the time she stood out in the hallway, the battle between the guards and the men had concluded, with all of the members of the latter group laying dead at her feet. She pressed the button that deactivated her personal shield just as Captain Jehlak trotted up next to her.

"Ducha Lorangal, are you alright?" the captain asked.

"I'm fine, no thanks to you," the Ducha replied indignantly. Then she added, "But good work on stopping these brutes, Captain."

"Thank you, Milady," Jehlak said, her tone not entirely grateful. "We didn't know what was happening until we heard blasterfire coming from where you would be dining tonight. We first thought that everything was fine thanks to the video feed placed on the security cams, but when the shooting started-"

Lorangal waved the captain off. "How did the security operators in the camroom not see what was happening here?" she asked as she waved at the area around her and the rest of the guards.

Jehlak shrugged nervously. "We don't know, but we intend to find out, Milady."

"See that you do, Captain," Lorangal said, her tone mildly contemptible. "Also, make sure that gas is cleared out of the dining hall by morning." She pointed back to the gas cloud that encompassed the entire meal table. "This event has put me off my appetite. I shall sleep earlier tonight." She then moved down to the direction of her bedchambers.

Before she was halfway there, she was intercepted by a chamberlain holding a datapad with an active newsfeed. "Milady, Milady!" the chamberlain shouted.

"What is it?" Lorangal asked impatiently.

"You must see this!" the chamberlain responded with worry as she showed the datapad to her Ducha.

Lorangal looked and listened. Her impatient gaze turned to one of grave horror as she heard from what the Hapan anchorwoman reported.

.

Tenel Ka, sitting on her throne with her daughter standing next to her, both watched the newsfeed on the datapad that Han and Leia, who were also in the room, had given her. Indeed, what the anchorwoman, Gejulda Flajan, had to say was most disturbing.

"Today, for the past two hours, reports have been coming in from our local employees throughout the Consortium of what is being described as the beginning of the end for this government," Flajan reported with obvious concern in her tone. "To recap, on the worlds of Arabanth, Terephon, Sivoria, and Gallinore, and just recently, on Andalia, the leading Duchas have been attacked by the male servants in their households. With the exception of Ducha Lorangal of Andalia, all of the Duchas on the other worlds have been assassinated by their male servants, with their security following their Duchas to their graves.

"The surviving male servants of these worlds - again, with the exception of Ducha Lorangal - have escaped from the houses from which they worked in. Anonymous tips have been given to the police to investigate the houses to discover the dead occupants of each of these homes. In each home, there was an active datapad that had this message."

The image of Flajan changed to one that Tenel Ka was familiar with. It was the image of the man in the shadows, the leader of the Free Men, who spoke to her on her destroyed datapad last night.

"People of the Hapes Consortium, both male and female!" the leader declared. "You will hear what I have to say, not in spite of my sex, but because of it! For too long, men have been oppressed throughout the Consortium! We have been ruled by despotic Queen Mothers, decadent Duchas, and nobles and aristocrats whose reputations have not fared much better for thousands of years! We have been given no quarter to prove ourselves to be equal to that of the females who reign over the Transitory Mists! We have not been given the chance to prove our worth as sentient beings who can become anything we wish, who can provide and contribute to the Consortium's power and wealth!

"And now, even after we have had a _Jedi_ Queen Mother, who has worked with _men_, on _equal footing_, no less, for nearly _twenty years_, she still does not even attempt to lobby for the rights of the Hapan men! Well, no more! To all of you Duchas who remain, and to Tenel Ka Djo and her daughter, and to everyone else - man or woman - who still supports this cruel, backstabbing matriarchy, turn back from this tyranny now! Give us men a chance to show that we can be as good as you, or prepare to meet your doom at the hands of the Free Men!"

The image paused and shrunk to the upper left corner of the screen, with the rest of the datapad's image imposing Flajan's figure in it.

"There you have it. A very shocking and disturbing message that will not be tolerated by the Queen Mother or-"

The rest of the anchorwoman's words were cut off as Tenel Ka shut the datapad off.

"No doubt the attack on Allana's birthday last night was just the beginning," Tenel Ka said. "It may not have succeeded, but I doubt that the leader of the Free Men expected it to. He is just beginning to accumulate support from disgruntled male servants."

"And you're not worried about this?" Han asked.

"Well, of course I am worried, Han," Tenel Ka said. "I worry as much as I do whenever there is unrest in my Consortium."

"Yeah, but I don't think you get it, Tenel Ka," Han said. "I think you may have something along the lines of the slave uprising from a year ago."

"Actually, I do get it," Tenel Ka said. "In fact, I have thought that this might be the case. Freedom throughout the galaxy is becoming contagious, and now it has infected the Consortium."

"And is that a bad thing?" Han asked.

Leia, Allana, and Tenel Ka looked at him, all disconcerted.

"Well, really, why is this so bad?" Han asked. "The liberation of men from being second-class citizens in the Hapes Consortium? What's wrong about that?"

"Han, this is not the Galactic Federation of Free Alliances," Tenel Ka argued. "Imposing a men's rights action would bring untold-"

"Change?" Han interrupted.

"Han," Leia said with gritted teeth. "Not to the Queen Mother."

"Last I checked, we're not Hapan subjects, Leia," Han pointed out before returning his attention to Tenel Ka.

"I was about to say chaos," the Queen Mother said, ignoring Han's interruption. "Just imagine all of the increased assassination attempts on my life-"

"it's nothing you can't handle," Han interrupted again. "You've dealt with worse even before you became Queen Mother. And I don't think you support this gender imbalance thing anymore than I do. Or Leia or Allana, for that matter."

"I don't entirely agree with the notion of superiority of one gender over another," Leia admitted. "But still, Han, if this isn't done with better care, the Consortium could very well fall apart, and Tenel Ka actually ending up a victim of a successful assassination will be the least of the Consortium's worries."

"Yeah, yeah, it's all about politics," Han said.

"And the fact that this man is a terrorist, and he's supporting terrorist actions, Grandpa," Allana pointed out. "Giving into his demands, even if they're demands that bring equality, would still make Mommy look weak. And we can't have that with a bunch of backstabbing Duchas."

"Fair point," Han acknowledged. "Fine, Tenel Ka, you can continue to play this game for as long as you want to against these Free Men, if only because they're a buncha killers. But I doubt you'll be against it for long." He then turned to leave the throne room.

Leia gave the Queen Mother an uncertain look before following her husband.

Once the Solos reached the doorway, they were blocked by the guards lowering their rifles before them.

"It is not wise to speak to the Queen Mother like that, man," the guard on the left said.

Han opened his mouth to respond when Tenel Ka declared, "Guards! Leave the Solos be!"

"But, Milady-"

"That is an order," Tenel Ka said. "And it's more than enough that I have you two listening in on the conversations that I have with my family."

The guards each gave Han a sneer before raising their blasters away and letting him and Leia pass.

"You should have better control of your man," the other guard whispered to Leia on the latter's way out.

"I already have," Leia whispered back wryly.


	5. Chapter 5

In the sewers of Terephon, a group of self-liberated Hapan males scurried forth from the house of the now-late Ducha they once served under. They had traveled for some time, for quite a distance, silent yet with surprising dignity even in all this muck, for it was the path that facilitated their freedom.

Under the leadership of the plain-looking, light-skinned brunette male at the head of the group, all of the males were as quiet as the rats and cockroaches they encountered. Unlike the vermin and insects beneath their heels, however, they actually had a goal that not even the most anti-male Hapan feminist would think to compare these men's lives to the lives of primary sewer-dwellers.

"Where are we going?" someone near the back of the congregation asked.

"As I said twice before," their leader said patiently as he turned slightly to look back, not stopping or slowing in his tracks. "You'll know when we get there." He turned back to focus on what was ahead.

Those were the only times when the unified silence was ever broken for the human male who helped free them. He was the stranger who provided them the means to assassinate Ducha Hijanee and eliminate her entire security force before they escaped, leaving only the datapad that left the message of the Free Men's overall leader.

Soon, the group had reached a dead end. But before any of them would point that out to their leader, the latter promptly removed a small canister from his pocket, approached the decrepit-looking wall before him, sprayed the wall with a liquid from the canister, and stepped back. He then took out a remote from his pocket, pushed a button, and then the wall before them melted to reveal a dirt-lined path.

"We're heading out into the forests, aren't we?" another male in the back asked.

"Yes, we are," the leader confirmed before proceeding into the entrance of their path. The rest of the group followed suit, as it was expected of them in their pursuit of freedom and equality.

Several minutes later - during which no one asked where they were going - they turned into a junction, and the first thing that they all saw was a ladder ahead of them. Naturally, their leader was the first to climb up the ladder, and once he reached the top of the dirt-filled cavern, he pushed up against the natural ceiling - the underground of a section of forest floor - above him.

Only it wasn't a natural ceiling. It was a wooden door that was perfectly designed to aesthetically blend in with its surroundings. He climbed up and out into the daylight sky that was filtered through the canopy of trees above, and then he waited as one-by-one each of the males climbed up and out to look ahead at the area that their leader was staring at.

"Is everyone here?" Gajab asked after a few minutes. The question was really rhetorical, for he began counting immediately. When he was done, he nodded in approval. "Good." He turned back, took out the remote, and pressed another button, which resulted in the sudden appearance of a Hapan shuttle before the group.

"Cloaking tech?" one of the men asked their leader.

The latter nodded to the man who asked the question before turning back. He pressed yet another button, which automatically lowered the boarding ramp of the shuttle. Wordlessly, he approached the ramp to climb into the ship, with everyone following along for the sake of completing their liberation.

Once the ramp was up and the engines were started, the shuttle carefully lifted up and out of the forest canopy before rocketing up into the sky.

Following its departure from Terephon's atmosphere, they hit what was the most difficult and dangerous part of their escape (aside from the battle that they caused and won back in their Ducha's home).

The shuttle's comm console pinged with the notice of an incoming message. The leader of the group of male escapees, who piloted the shuttle, opened the hailing frequency.

"Hapan shuttle Six-Five-Oh-Nine-Dash-Gee-Ess, this is Terephon Orbital Security," the voice of a Hapan female came over the shuttle's comm, "what is the reason for your departure from Terephon?"

The leader pressed a button on the console before pressing the reply button itself. Three of the men that he liberated from Ducha Hijanee crowded at the door to the shuttle's cockpit behind him, anxious to see how they could get past this one. "Orbital Security, this is Captain Flesha Gajab, on my way to deliver some silk and spices over to Gaillinore. I'll send you the list of the exact cargo manifest, if you'd like."

"Please, do so, Captain Gajab," Orbital Security replied.

Gajab - if that was his real name - pressed another button, and waited a few moments.

"Captain Gajab, you are clear to proceed out of the gravity well and jump to hyperspace," Orbital Security finally said. "Have a safe trip, ma'am."

"Thank you, Orbital Security,' Gajab said before cutting off the communication. He then looked back to the men who waited there. "Vocal filter. Made me sound like a woman."

"What if they looked at us through the viewport?" one of the men asked.

"Same button shielded us so that on close viewing, either through physical sight or visual scanners," the leader explained, "it would make me look like lone Captain Flesha Gajab." He smiled before turning back to the viewport.

He then piloted the ship toward the coordinates that would take them to Gaillinore... if he didn't take a detour along the way.

Soon, the shuttle was in hyperspace, and it wasn't long - it took only half an hour - before they reached an empty, uninhabited system.

Empty and uninhabited except for the shuttle itself and the Battle Dragon that awaited before it.

After the leader/pilot pressed the button on his console that he used to produce the vocal and viewport filters, the comm console received another message notice. The leader pressed the button fort he hailing frequency again.

"Captain Gajab," the voice of a Hapan male came, "have you delivered the cargo?"

"Oh, yes, Command, I have," Gajab replied. "Permission to come aboard to facilitate the delivery?"

"Granted," the male voice replied with satisfaction. "And congratulations for being the last to arrive."

"I guess I lost the bet," Gajab said wryly. "I owe you some Relephon wine."

"Don't you forget it," the voice replied in a flirtatious manner. "I'll be waiting."

Gajab, with a lustful smile on his face, then cut the frequency and proceeded for the Battle Dragon's landing bay.

"How did you get a Battle Dragon?" one of the three men behind Gajab asked.

"Pirating," Gajab answered without turning his attention away from his piloting.

"You managed to steal an entire Battle Dragon with _pirating_?" another of the men asked. "What, was the original crew a bunch of amateurs?"

"No, they were as professional as Hapan training demanded," Gajab replied. This time, he smiled as if he were appreciative of his own skills. "We were just better than your average Hapan pirates."

"And you haven't attracted any military attention?"

"Oh, no, we have," Gajab replied. "Of course, we made it look like the ships were destroyed by accidents, like overloads and stuff like that, so there'd be no sanctioned searches. Mainly, the Consortium's military would get notions like that from forged messages we sent out some time after the attacks occur, with timestamps that make it look like they were sent out during the attacks."

"Attacks? You mean you stole _more_ Battle Dragons?"

"Just two others," Gajab elaborated. "We spread the attacks out months at a time so the military won't get too concerned."

From there, Gajab landed the shuttle in the bay and he began cycling the ship's engines down. Outside, several dozen men stood in a large congregation in the bay, waiting in anticipation of the new arrivals.

Gajab then stood up and walked to the exit of the cockpit, where the three men there stood back to let their leader walk past.

"Gentlemen!" he declared to all the other men. "Welcome to your freedom!"

.

"Given these recent attacks across the Consortium," Trista Zel said before the line of male servants in the Fountain Palace's courtyard, "I am afraid that each and every one of you will have your services suspended until the organization known as the Free Men is neutralized as a threat to the Consortium."

_Damn it_, Dreden, one of the men in the line, thought. _We can't just leave the Queen Mother alive before we leave! If we kill her, we'll be heroes among the Free Men!_

Screw what their leader said. Oh, sure, they were given an opportunity to make a break for freedom, but if they just took this opportunity to leave, Dreden would only feel like a coward.

"Hey, wait a minute-" Dreden tried to say.

"Do not speak unless you are spoken to, man," Zel interrupted the servant.

_Oh, how I'm going to enjoy killing you, bitch_, Dreden thought.

"Now, there is very little cause for concern for any of you," Zel continued. "The Queen Mother is generous enough to provide you all hotels to stay in in Ta'a Chume'Dan, along with your regular pays and some extra money for your stay in the capital." Her tone narrowed. "I hope you all remember Her Majesty's generosity to your sex before any of you so much as _think_ of betraying your great Queen Mother." She then pointed to Dreden. "Now you may speak."

"Why would the Queen Mother suspect any of us of trying to assassinate her?" he asked.

Zel looked at him as if he were an idiot. "Really? The fact that there have been attacks by males, headed by a male terrorist, means nothing to you? I think even a mere courtesan such as yourself could discern why you and your comrades are being sent away for a little while, far from the Queen Mother."

"But none of us would dare betray Her Majesty!" Dreden protested, mustering the best that his acting ability could conjure up. He had a lot of practice pretending that he reveled in having sex with that one-armed slut of a queen. "My companions and I have been all but the most loyal subjects to her for years! And she has been the kindest Queen Mother we have ever served under! No disrespect to her mother intended."

"I hope not," Zel said sternly. "Regardless, the Queen Mother is taking this situation as seriously as every other attempt on her life and regime. And since she knows who is the most likely group of people to target her - which is unlike other, more typical Hapan assassination attempts - she agrees with my professional assessment that this would increase her safety for the time being. Are there any other questions?"

"I have another," Dreden spoke out again.

Zel nodded patiently. "Speak."

"What would it take for a loyal courtesan such as myself to see his beloved Queen Mother one last time before he has to stay in the capital city for an undetermined period of time?"

Zel narrowed her gaze upon the man. "You have no right-"

Before Zel could complete that sentence, Dreden quickly reached into his bare-chested shirt and whipped out his blaster, aiming it for the Hapan woman in an instant.

But Zel, who was trained to react in a split second on even the remotest hint of someone reaching for a weapon, had already dropped flat on her belly while simultaneously producing her own blaster from the holster on her hip. The shot fired by Dreden whizzed by overhead, but Zel's shot hit him square in his built chest.

Dreden was dead before he hit the ground.

.

Just as the man who was trying Trista's patience dropped lifelessly to the ground, several of the other courtesans produced their own blasters and began aiming them at the guards stationed around the Palace courtyard. A firefight broke out right then and there, and Trista quickly pushed herself back to her feet to scramble for cover. She fired on the run while managing to not get hit by either enemy or friendly fire before she settled behind the statue built in (obligatory) honor of the late Ta'a Chume. From there, Trista leaned out and aimed some lasers, most of them missing, but a few managed to connect to drop some of the male terrorists.

In the few seconds Trista had before she ducked back behind the Ta'a Chume statue - which received a few scorches here and there from stray laserfire - she noticed that some of the courtesans were on their bellies, cowering and crying for their lives while a battle raged around them.

_Well, at least we know who we can trust around here_, Trista thought before she leaned back out to fire some more shots. _At least for the meantime_.

When she ducked back again, she was suddenly attacked by one of the male terrorists, who was lacking a blaster. Trista didn't care why he didn't have one; whether he lost it or his weapon's battery pack ran out, it didn't matter. What mattered was the fact that he tackled her to the ground before she had a chance to react and knocked the blaster away from her hand before she had a chance to bring it about against him.

Still, she managed to use her opposite forearm to deflect the fist that he drove toward her face, then used her former weapon hand to smack him up the chin. The man leaned back from the blow, giving Trista enough room to push herself away from his mass before sending a double-kick to his chest. He fell back to the ground, which allowed Trista to turn her attention back to her lost blaster, which she broke into a dive for. When she landed in a crouch in front of it, she reached out for it, but she flinched away when a laser bolt nearly grazed her hand.

Before she could renew her reach for it, she felt more than heard the footsteps of the man she temporarily dispatched rushing up behind her. She jumped up from her crouch and whirled around to smack her left elbow across his face before following it up with a punch to his gut. He doubled over, but he once again tackled Trista back to the ground. He then drove his elbow into her stomach, causing her to instinctively sit up in pain, straining for breath, before she received a backhand that sent her crashing back to the ground.

But two seconds later, Trista managed to recover to yank her legs out of the man's weight to execute a backward roll before snap-kicking the man straight in the face. She then stomped the same foot down on the top of his head, driving him back against the ground. Trista then leaped on top of him, grabbed him in a headlock, and broke his neck, killing him in an instant.

However, just as she let his body drop, she was struck straight in the left shoulder and she fell to the ground on her back, screaming in pain. The next thing she knew, another man - this one who had the eyes and set jaw of a rabid animal - was on top of her, raining a series of blows against her with his fists. His incomprehensible screams - which, even in her frenzied state, Trista noticed had a grief-stricken overtone behind it - lasted for the next several seconds before one final blow sent Trista's world into darkness.


	6. Chapter 6

"Will she be alright?" Leia asked Tenel Ka.

The two women, along with Han, Jaina, Jagged Fel, and Allana, all stood in one of the rooms of the Fountain Palace's infirmary, where Trista lay unconscious on the bed before the trio. Her face was battered and bruised from the hits that she sustained, with a whole series of bandages covering up a quarter of her face.

"She is in a coma that should last for about two days, according to the doctor," Tenel Ka answered as if she were giving a report to a military officer about the delivery of survival rations at a base. "She was knocked unconscious before her attacker was shot dead by one of the guards. A few more hits, and we would now be looking upon her corpse in the Palace's morgue. I have already contacted Taryn to let her know about this. She and Zekk have already finished their mission in the Outer Rim and the last that I had heard from them, they are coming with due haste to see Trista."

"Tenel Ka, I'm so sorry we weren't here to help," Jaina said.

Tenel Ka waved her off. "There is no need to apologize, Jaina. You, Jag, and your parents could not have possibly known that this would happen before your set off for Ta'a Chume'Dan today as part of your vacation. It is I who should have predicted this and who should have stopped it." She turned back to the comatose Trista and laid her only hand on one of her cousin's. "I am so sorry that this had happened to you, dear cousin. I should have known some stupid paramour would do something like this." Her tone was reserved, although not without a tinge of sadness and grief behind her voice. Tenel Ka blinked back the tears that she felt were threatening to escape.

"Speaking of which," Han said carefully, weary of the Queen Mother's tenuous emotional state right now, "did all the men in the courtyard die?"

"Not all of them," Tenel Ka answered as she turned away from Trista. Her tone and overall composure returned to its royal propriety. "There were those who did not decide to betray me, as you may know already, Han. And then there were the survivors of the traitors who managed to escape. Only five did."

"Did you put out a search for them?" Jag asked.

"I did," Tenel Ka answered with a nod.

"And what about the men who decided not to betray you?" Jaina asked.

"I have cancelled their hotel stays in Ta'a Chume'Dan," Tenel Ka explained. "They will remain in the Palace for the time being until there is any scent of betrayal among them."

"Unless that's what they wanted you to do all along," Han suggested.

All eyes turned to him.

"What do you mean, Grandpa?" Allana asked.

"Well, for all we know," Han began, "this attack could have been a way to trick you-" He looked at Tenel Ka "-into thinking that the men who dropped to the ground and didn't fight were trustworthy. That way, the Free Men would have a better chance at killing you."

"As likely as that sounds, Han," Tenel Ka said, "I do not think that is the case. Unless, of course, the Free Men decided that sacrificing a few men who wanted their freedom, something that was denied to them in death, was worth trying to kill me."

"They're called _martyrs_, Tenel Ka," Han said. "Fanatical groups like this have 'em. Just look at the Yuuzhan Vong under Onimi."

"The Vong were _obsessed_ with death, Dad," Jaina pointed out. "I don't think the Free Men are about that for anyone aside from the Hapan women they kill for their 'liberation'. Although you may have a point."

"Still, I find it highly unlikely that the Free Men would have martyrs already," Tenel Ka said. "It is too soon. I would imagine that a lot more time would pass for this movement to get going before they mustered enough spirit to cement the idea of martyring. Especially when they are not that desperate for support yet."

"Well, all the same, I think you should still watch yourself when you're around those 'loyal' courtesans of yours," Han said.

"I would not be the Queen Mother today if I was not always careful around my subjects in general," Tenel Ka said.

"I have a question about this, though," Jag spoke up.

"Yes?" Tenel Ka inquired.

"Why couldn't you just use your ability to sense who is loyal to you and who isn't through the Force?" Jag asked. "I mean, you don't even have to be in the same room with the courtesans to sense 'em, so the question of your security isn't a problem."

"Following the attacks throughout the Consortium yesterday," Tenel Ka explained, "I did exactly that. Unfortunately, I couldn't get a read on their Force-presences."

"You couldn't sense 'em?" Han asked with sudden alarm. "Are the Vong-"

"Not like that, Han," Tenel Ka quickly assured him. "I meant that while I could sense their presences, I could not sense their intents. The only thing that I can discern from them was the fact that they existed in my Palace, but that was it. Which is strange, because even in the most emotionally-guarded Hapans that I have encountered, I was able to sense, more or less, their intents. And these were mere courtesans who would not know how to guard their intentions from me."

"Which is why you decided to send them all out in the first place," Jag concluded.

"Fact," Tenel Ka confirmed.

"Well, did you decide to make the courtesans who didn't betray you go through some kind of physical that would determine how and why they could block their intentions from you?" Jag asked.

"I have," Tenel Ka said. "In fact, that procedure is being commenced right now as we speak on each of the loyal courtesans. The physicians have promised that I will have their reports in two days, at least."

"Why didn't you decide to order that kinda test on them before you decided to release them to Ta'a Chume'Dan?" Han asked.

"I had considered that option, but I felt that if there were any turncoat courtesans, they would have been, as you would say, Han, 'banking' on me sensing the fact that I could not read their emotions or intentions," Tenel Ka explained. "Therefore, that would have allowed them more time to stay in my Palace and work their way through whatever plot they had to try to assassinate Allana and I."

"Well, can you sense the courtesans now?" Han asked.

Tenel Ka shook her head. "Unfortunately, no."

Leia, Jaina, and Allana all shook their heads. "I can't, either," Leia said.

"Not me," Jaina added.

"I can only sense that they're in the Palace's medical wing, but that's it," Allana elaborated.

"Well, that's encouraging," Jag said sarcastically.

Han shrugged. "You know, I doubt there's ever a too early in martyrdom."

"You believe that I should send the loyal courtesans back out for Ta'a Chume'Dan after all, Han?" Tenel Ka asked.

"Your funeral if you don't," Han said.

"Thank you for your consideration," Tenel Ka said politely after a moment. "However, on the off-chance that the courtesans being tested right now are loyal after all, and I send them out there after the violence that they witnessed, they will consider me to be a selfish and unjust Queen Mother who cowers for her safety rather than a Queen Mother who cares for their emotional well-being. From there, they will no doubt buy into the propaganda of the Free Men and escape Ta'a Chume'Dan to join those terrorists."

She then turned back and looked back down at Trista in renewed quiet sadness. "I will find out how they managed to slip through my senses, cousin. I promise you that," Tenel Ka vowed.

Leia stepped forward to place her hand on the stump of the Queen Mother's right arm. "Listen, Tenel Ka, if you need anything-"

"What I need," the Queen Mother interrupted, abruptly looking back at Leia, "is to stop this uprising of these Free Men. They threaten the hegemony of the Consortium and the structure that has kept this civilization alive for thousands of years, and therefore must be stopped like any other organization that threatens the crown and nobility."

"Then maybe we can help," Jaina said. "The Jedi Order is always happy to help."

"Are you not needed back on Shedu Maad with Jag and your parents in two days, Jaina?" Tenel Ka asked.

"I could just comm Uncle Luke and ask for permission," Jaina replied, indicating the comm on her belt. "I'm sure he'll let us help the Consortium out, and maybe give us some backup."

"Thank you, dear friend," Tenel Ka said with a grateful nod and the hint of a smile. She then moved to the door. "Please let me know if you get the permission," she added as she left with Allana beside her.

"Wanna go after 'em?" Han asked Leia.

"What?" Jaina asked.

"Nothing," Leia said to her daughter.

"No, really, what is it?" Jaina asked her mother.

Leia sighed. "You know what it's about."

Jaina's expression sunk. "It hasn't gotten worse, has it? I mean, I didn't sense it coming from-"

"No, no, it hasn't gotten worse," Leia interrupted with a wave. "It's just that..." She trailed off as she looked away from Jaina, wondering what she could say.

But Jaina stopped her before she could think anymore about it. The Jedi Master gently cupped her mother's hands, looked her straight in the eyes, and said, "Mom, listen. Allana's gonna be alright, okay? She's strong. She has our support. She'll grow up to be a great Queen Mother."

"It was seen that it would happen," Leia admitted reluctantly as she broke eye contact with her daughter. When she looked back, she said, "Of course, Jacen had our support..."

Jaina shook her head to cut her mother off. "She won't fall like Jacen. Remember that. I just told you, it was foreseen that she won't fall, right? And if she does, we _will_ be there to bring her back. None of us will have to make that kinda sacrifice ever again." Even as she said that, the emotional pain that she still sometimes carried when it came to killing her own brother had sneaked into her otherwise composed tone.

Leia nodded hesitantly yet surely, though not without moist eyes. "I know. I know." She looked back at Han, who also looked barely restrained himself, before she looked back at Jaina. "Still, can't blame us for worrying, right?"

Jaina gave a sad smile. "It'll be alright, Mom. I promise."

Leia's somewhat cheery smirk was no less sad. "I wish I had your confidence, Jaina."

.

Mr. Leader slammed his fist down hard on his desktop while Brakin, the dark-haired man who led the royal courtesans off of Hapes, stared back through the transmission of his superior's datapad stoically.

"That is unacceptable, Brakin," Mr. Leader growled. "Only _five_? What exactly happened there?"

"One of the idiot courtesans tried to kill the Queen Mother's cousin," Brakin answered. "I don't know what was going on in his head; maybe he thought he could try to get a shot at taking Tenel Ka down, I don't know."

"Didn't you let them know that they were going to their _freedom_?" Mr. Leader emphasized.

"I did, I let them know perfectly," Brakin elaborated. "Children of any age could understand what I was telling them. They even knew that they could get out of there through the solution we gave them that completely blocks off Force-users from reading their intents and emotions."

"This is disgusting," Mr. Leader said, ignoring Brakin's statement. "This is how badly the Hapan matriarchy has degraded men! It made them too stupid to think rationally enough to properly fight!"

"Well, that is why we are training and educating the escapees, sir," Brakin pointed out. "Still, I did manage to save _some_ of the courtesans. So this is still something of a victory."

"It is too negligible to be counted as anything other than a _hollow_ victory, Brakin," Mr. Leader countered. "I am surprised that they managed to find and reach you in your safe house in Ta'a Chume'Dan. We cannot strike true into the heart of the Hapan matriarchy unless all males throughout the Consortium stand true against this social inequality!"

"Which, again, is why we are implementing the same educational treatment that woman get in the Consortium," Brakin pointed out.

"Let's hope there are enough men left to use that education to stand up against this oppressive matriarchy!" Mr. Leader proclaimed. "Good day to you, Brakin," he added, his tone only now cooling down. He then shut off the connection between them before beginning to input the comm code of one of his peers.

After the code was put through, Droma's voice replied almost immediately, "That you, Mister Leader?"

"Indeed, it is, Fortune Teller," Mr. Leader said, using Droma's codename for this kind of conversation. "Are you ready for the next phase of the operation?"

"I'm ready if you and Mister Blink are," Droma replied. "And I've made sure that all the courtesans and other male servants have been quietly removed from the houses of the Duchas who are in question in this phase of the op."

"Well, then, let's see if Mister Blink is ready, too, with his own developments complete," Mr. Leader said in a conversational manner. He put Droma on hold before inputting Blink's code. "Are you ready?" Mr. Leader asked after the Bothan answered.

"Everything Fortune Teller and I set up is good to go," Blink responded.

"Then get ready for the fireworks, gentlemen," Mr. Leader said. He then activated the screen on his datapad that showed him visual representations of the worlds of Relephon, Talcharaim, Daruvvia, Harterra, Dreena, Wodan, Thrakia, Tumani, Ket, and Kavan.

_Time to lighten up my mood for today_, Mr. Leader thought with a smile hidden in the darkness that he enclosed himself in.

With a simple push of a button on his 'pad, great red spots appeared on each of the miniscule red spots of the worlds.

By now, each of the houses of the Duchas on each of those worlds had all exploded, killing their respective owners and all the females who remained loyal to them.

The fact that Mr. Leader could only view them like this didn't take away from the beauty of a real victory today.


	7. Chapter 7

Seated on her throne, Tenel Ka sifted through the replies of the apology letters that she sent out. The messages on her datapad - which had been installed with anti-hacking software that was promised to prevent someone like the Free Men's leader from sending her another message with a bomb attached to it - showed varying degrees of appreciation and anger on the parts of the people who represented the dead guests at Allana's party. Tenel Ka chose to ignore the angry replies, as writing anything back, good or bad, would only degenerate the already-non-existent relationships that Tenel Ka had with these people.

She smirked humorlessly. As if _she_ was the one responsible for the deaths of those party guests and the Duchas that the Free Men killed.

At times like these, Tenel Ka wondered why people tended to blame the wrong parties for their problems. Oh, she understood why people would shift blame to others for something that they themselves were responsible for, for they felt that it was that other party who somehow drove them to commit whatever heinous actions that they undertook. But when it came to something that another party altogether was responsible for, the party casting the blame would shift the blame to someone who may even be trying to solve the problem.

It was something that she noted during the Yuuzhan Vong War; when the invaders were conquering everything in their path - enslaving, killing, destroying - the people of the galaxy, particularly in the New Republic, did not so much as blame the Vong so much as they did the Jedi and, to a lesser extent, the New Republic for not stopping the aliens. Granted, it became slightly more understandable after Warmaster Tsavong Lah temporarily halted the invasion to bring in any and all Jedi to him, but other than that, it baffled Tenel Ka how people, in general, could cast that kind of blame onto others when they did not deserve it.

If Tenel Ka were somebody like that, she thought, she would be casting blame onto the established Hapan matriarchy that she herself was ruling for bringing about the Free Men's attacks instead of the Free Men themselves. After all, she would gladly push forth whatever legislature was needed to grant men in the Consortium equal rights to women...

She shook that thought off when she realized the flaw in it. Giving men equal rights, regardless of whether or not the Free Men were peaceful or violent in their protests against the matriarchy, would bring instability not only to the Hapan social structure, but also its very civilization itself. No Ducha who considered herself a true Hapan would dare support any equal rights movement for men in the Consortium.

Returning her attention to her datapad, she also saw that, amidst the other messages she received, were letters from the friends and families of the four dead Duchas who died because of the Free Men's attacks. Many of the letters contained demands to the Queen Mother to crack down on the Free Men, as if she had not already been doing that, and as if _she_ was the one who served them.

Then again, that was the duty of the Hapan matriarchy; to serve the people. And under that, it was not to listen to the pleas of men native to the Consortium.

Tenel Ka's thoughts were cut off again as she sensed the approach of Han, Leia, Jaina, and Jag approaching from outside the throne room. The Queen Mother set the datapad on top of her left armrest and waited the few moments that the Solos and Fels needed to enter after presenting the proper verification to the guards outside.

As predicted, the doors to the room opened inward, and all four of them walked in. Tenel Ka noted the guards standing obediently inside the room, at either side of the doors, flashed near-imperceptible gazes of hatred at Han for the last time that he talked with the Queen Mother.

"Ah, the Solos," Tenel Ka said as they entered. "Jaina, have you received permission from Master Skywalker to assist the Consortium in stopping the Free Men?"

"I have," Jaina said as she and her parents and husband continued toward the dais of Tenel Ka's throne. "Uncle Luke's also agreed to send in Ben and Tahiri to help us. Of course, what we need is your request to send us where you think we're needed to begin this search."

"Indeed," Tenel Ka said once the Solos and Fels stopped in the center of the room. She grabbed her datapad and switched it to another frequency, this one bringing up the list of sites that she prepared for the Solos to investigate. "But first, Han, Leia, may I ask if you are sure you want to do this? I understand that you are both retired."

Han smirked while Leia nodded politely. "It's an unofficial retirement," the latter provided.

"Yeah, and, let's face it," Han added, "a buncha terrorists dropping in trying to kill you and Allana during our granddaughter's party shows us that we won't be done 'til the day we die."

"As you wish," Tenel Ka said before looking at her datapad. "Now, the first location that I want you to search is-"

The Queen Mother was abruptly cut off by a sharp sensation from the Force. When the feeling passed, she looked at the Solos and Fels and found that, judging by Leia and Jaina's pained reactions, that something had gone terribly wrong.

"What's wrong?" Han asked his wife, concern evident in his tone and expression. His displayed thoughts were shared with Jag for his own spouse.

"A lot of people just died, Dad," Jaina provided.

"The Free Men?" Jag asked.

"Most likely," Leia said.

Tenel Ka quickly returned her attention to her datapad and saw that there was a red flag in the upper left corner of the screen. She had that program installed in case of another Free Men attack in the Consortium, which resulted in the death of a Ducha. It had been wired to each and every satellite of every inhabited planet under the Queen Mother's rule and jurisdiction, so that if something major and terrible occurred, Tenel Ka would know about it immediately.

She pressed her thumb against the red flag on the screen, and the image of the list of worlds that she was going to read for the Solos shifted to a live view of ten Hapan worlds. Each image representing each of those worlds narrowed their focus to a still-live view of the houses of the local Duchas.

All of them were up in flames, and emergency response teams were already on their ways to the infernos.

By now, the Solos and Fels had joined Tenel Ka and had gathered around her to see what was going on, and they were as shocked as the Queen Mother to find what they were looking at.

Their attention was torn away from the datapad at the chiming of Tenel Ka's commlink on her belt. She set the 'pad down on the armrest again and took out the comm to activate it. "Hello?" she asked.

"You think this is a kriffin' game, Your Majesty?" the voice of the Free Men's leader came through. "In case you didn't get it the last time we spoke, or through my public message, this is only going to get worse until you agree to give men equal rights in the Consortium!"

"You," Tenel Ka growled. "It is incredibly stupid of you to be calling me on my personal commlink. I can have it tracked even if you cut off the communication right now, and I doubt that you can send another bomb-"

"You can't track me back, I already took care of that," the Free Men's leader interrupted. "I only called just to remind you that we aren't going away, and if you don't give us what we want, we _will_ destroy the Consortium and let you see the ashes of your matriarchy before we let you die with it."

"You kill several Duchas and destroy property; they can all be replaced," Tenel Ka pointed out. "And you forget, I am not only a former Jedi, but I have the Solos and the Fels on my side. Your organization cannot possibly win either way."

"Ah, yes, we know of your continued association with the Solos and the Fels, Djo," the Free Men's leader said. "Tell me, how do Han Solo and Jagged Fel feel about staying in a society that oppresses their gender?"

"How about you ask us yourselves, you maniac?" Han asked, projecting his voice directly to Tenel Ka's comm.

The Free Men's leader's smirk was audible over the comm frequency. "Very well then. How do you feel about living in a society that oppresses your gender?"

"Speaking for myself," Jag said in a diplomatic way, reflecting on his years as Imperial Head of State, "I find that while the conditions are unfair for men, they do not require terrorist actions as a tactic for political combat, as it were."

"You wouldn't be saying that if you weren't a guest in the Fountain Palace," the Free Men's leader countered. "And, Han Solo, what about you? How do _you_, the legendary smuggler-turned-Rebel, feel about living in a society where your thoughts and opinions aren't respected, and not because of your past."

"Honestly?" Han asked. He cast a brief glance at the inner door guards who had threatened him the last time he was in this room before returning his full attention to Tenel Ka's commlink. "It definitely ain't fair, and when I remove myself from being a guest in the Palace, I can agree, it's not the best place for men. But even my younger self could agree that what you're doing is wrong."

"It is _necessary_," the Free Men's leader emphasized. "Do you hear that, Your Highness? It is _necessary_ that we, the Free Men, have to do this to your precious Consortium! Nowhere in the Transitory Mists is a local man given the same basic rights and freedoms as the average woman, and you will not give us the chance to protest peacefully without us getting killed for our efforts! Even on a backwater world like Dathomir, a wild, savage planet known for Force-wielding witches oppressing men for centuries, now has a clan wherein the men and women are equal in every way possible!

"If a world like that, which doesn't even have basic plumbing, manages to successfully lobby for men's emancipation, even under adversity from parties like the Nightsisters, then what excuse do _you_ have for not seeing the same thing through? Hmm? Higher resistance from treacherous Duchas who want you dead anyway just so they can be Queen Mother and perpetuate this vicious cycle of treachery, deceit, and oppression over and over again? Oh, and let's not forget about your being a former Jedi, I'm sure that has given you extra points among the Duchas' collective favor." His tone became sarcastic. "I'm sure you wouldn't wanna do something like upset them when you actually do something good for once in your reign."

Tenel Ka's expression sharpened. "I have done more for this Consortium than you can possibly-"

"Oh, really, what exactly have you done? Hmm? Fight off the Yuuzhan Vong for the Consortium? You know, they wouldn't have even bothered with us if your mother didn't allow the remains of the New Republic to come here in the first place-"

"Do you honestly believe that the Yuuzhan Vong would not have invaded the Consortium in time anyway?" Tenel Ka interrupted.

Silence permeated the other end. Tenel Ka shared a smile with each of the Solos and Fels for scoring a point in this verbal battle against this terrorist.

"Very well, you have a point there," the Free Men's leader admitted, his tone sounding impotent. But then it just as quickly became righteous as it was deluded again. "But aside from your campaign against the Vong, which was really a shared campaign with the New Republic and then the Galactic Alliance and its allies for the remainder of that war, what have you done for this Consortium that justifies you being on that throne?"

"How about negotiating for Klatooine's membership into the Galactic Alliance last year?" Tenel Ka pointed out.

"Oh, yes, so involving yourself in foreign affairs for an organization that you are no longer affiliated with anyway makes you a good Queen Mother for the Consortium," the Free Men's leader countered. "Listen, here-"

"No, you listen, you murdering bastard," Tenel Ka interrupted. "You and your organization will be found, you will be caught, and you will be sentenced to death for treason against the Consortium. And whenever the words 'Free Men' are spoken in or out of the Consortium, they will not be associated with a movement for freedom or liberty; no, the words 'Free Men' will be associated with terrorism and death to all those who hear it."

"And yet I'm sure that many will still see the Hapes Consortium and associate it with oppression and tyranny," the Free Men's leader responded. "In either case, whether you catch me or not, Djo, you cannot stop the Free Men. If there is one thing that we have in common, it's that we, as leaders, can be replaced. The key difference between us, aside from our genders, is that the Free Men will prosper and grow, while the matriarchy of the Consortium will degenerate and die."

With that, the communication was cut off from the other end.

Everyone was silent for a while as they returned their attention to the images on Tenel Ka's datapad of the destroyed houses of the ten newly dead Duchas.

"Where was it that you wanted us to go, Tenel Ka?" Han asked.

Composing herself to the proper Queen Mother that she knew herself to be, Tenel Ka grabbed the datapad off her armrest and switched the frequency back to the list of worlds that she wanted the Solos and Fels to investigate.

"These are the worlds that I ask all of you to visit and search for whatever clues you can about the Free Men," Tenel Ka said as she showed them the list.

"These are the worlds of the initial attacks," Leia pointed out.

"They are," Tenel Ka said.

"But weren't they investigated already?" Han asked.

"They were, but perhaps you may find something that the local investigators missed," Tenel Ka said.

"You wanna add the ten most recent worlds to that list?" Jaina asked.

"I suppose that would be a good idea," Tenel Ka agreed. She then shifted her datapad's imagery so that it was now tuned to the news frequency where Gejulda Flajan was now reporting of the most recent attacks.

After the anchorwoman recited the names of the ten planets that have lost their Duchas, with each of the Solos and Fels writing the names down on their own datapads, they all nodded that they were ready.

"Oh, before we all go," Jag spoke up, "should we not call upon Master Corran Horn for this? Detective work was his forte."

"I'm sure Uncle Luke won't mind if he doesn't have a Master on Shedu Maad for a while," Jaina said as she took out her commlink.


	8. Chapter 8

Tenel Ka watched from one of her throne room's windows as the _Millennium Falcon_ and the _Faux Harla_ flew off into the skies of Hapes to carry out their respective missions. The _Falcon_ was to meet with Master Corran Horn, who Jaina convinced Grand Master Skywalker to have join their mission, over on Terephon, which would be the trio's first point of investigation for the whereabouts of the male servants of the dead Ducha there. Meanwhile, the _Harla_ would meet with Ben Skywalker and Tahiri Veila on Ket for the start of their own investigation.

Satisfied in knowing that the Solos and Fels were off of Hapes for their missions, Tenel Ka returned to her throne and activated her datapad to bury herself in the work that would no doubt come about from the Free Men's most recent attack half an hour earlier. There were the royal epitaphs that she would have to write for the recently-deceased Duchas, a formal statement about her government's search for the Free Men to at least partially, if not officially, reassure the public...

Tenel Ka was brought out of her thoughts by the buzz of her commlink on her belt. Hoping that it was not the Free Men's leader calling again to deliver another long-winded speech against her and her regime, she answered with, "Yes?"

"Your Majesty," the feminine voice on the other end responded. It was the properly subservient tone of her secretary. "Ducha Lorangal of Andalia is requesting to speak to you."

As she knew all the Duchas, Tenel Ka knew Lorangal just as well, because, really, the woman was the same as the rest of the Duchas, and her loyalty was typically tenuous. No doubt Lorangal was responsible for one of the many failed assassination attempts on the Queen Mother and the Chume'da that Tenel Ka could not prove, thanks to the loyalty of the assassins sent out to kill the Hapan royalty.

In summary, Lorangal knew how to behave like a Ducha.

"Send her frequency through to my commlink," Tenel Ka commanded reluctantly. At the very least, whatever Lorangal had to say, whether it was an outright threat or a translucent, and just as futile, appeal for the Queen Mother's favor, would serve as a temporary relief to Tenel Ka's duties as Queen Mother during this crisis.

A moment after Tenel Ka stated her command, Ducha Lorangal's voice came through. "Your Majesty," she said in a well-practiced, subordinate tone. Again, Tenel Ka had to admire her for her dedication to the role of Ducha when she was not plotting or executing any assassination attempts against the Queen Mother. "Are you doing well?"

"As well as I can during this crisis regarding the Free Men, Ducha Lorangal," Tenel Ka replied evenly. "And since you no doubt know that fact, I somehow doubt that you would have the audacity to make this a social call." While her tone was purely political, it was clear to even the most tone-deaf Kowakian monkey-lizard that the Queen Mother was venting her frustrations to one of her subjects, and there was nothing that Lorangal could do about it - at least not directly to Tenel Ka herself.

"Oh, I would never do such a thing to a Queen Mother as great as you, Your Highness," Lorangal replied like the subservient Ducha she was.

"Then out with it," Tenel Ka commanded impatiently.

"Well, Your Majesty, I am calling to make a proposition that will aid your most loyal forces against the Free Men," Lorangal responded, her tone still unwavering from its subservience. "In light of this terrorist organization's threat to the Consortium's very way of life, I promise to help gather up all the other Duchas who are... less-than-loyal to your position as Queen Mother so that we will be better able to hunt this menace down and exterminate it."

"What you are proposing, Ducha Lorangal, is something that I could very well do with my power anyway, regardless of all the other Duchas' feelings against me," Tenel Ka reminded Lorangal dryly. "Why are you wasting my time with your call?"

Lorangal's tone shifted; she now sounded as if she were Tenel Ka's superior now. "You know damn well that if you simply commanded all the Duchas to aid those you can actually trust, you won't yield much results in this search. And you'll simply anger the Duchas who already hate you just for being a former Jedi for commanding them to do something, even if it's in their best interests."

"I thought all the Duchas were supposed to listen to me anyway," Tenel Ka said as if she was surprised. She knew there was truth to Lorangal's words, but she still did not understand what conclusion that the Ducha was trying to reach.

"Your Majesty," Lorangal said with a sigh of irritation, "if you follow my proposition, I will promise you the complete and total loyalty of all the Duchas under your hold, with no assassination attempts, during the course of this search for the Free Men."

"You mean to tell me that you cannot guarantee all of the Duchas' complete obedience and servitude to me even after the Free Men are found and defeated?" Tenel Ka asked sarcastically. She knew that Lorangal could not guarantee every Ducha's total loyalty to her even if she wanted to. "Thank you, Ducha Lorangal, but I already have my best already on the case. If they cannot yield any results from their investigations, I will let you know when I need your help. You have my word. Good day to you." She then cut off the communication.

.

"_You insufferable Jedi bitch!_" Lorangal screamed vainly after the Queen Mother closed off the communication with her. She slammed her commlink to the floor of her bedchamber, where it bounced but didn't break, and the Ducha then turned to slam a fist down against the top of a nearby drawer.

Lorangal stood there for a full two minutes, fuming in anger, thinking of what those testosterone-laden Free Men were doing out there to what should rightfully be her Consortium. It took all of her dignity and ability to swallow her own pride to even dare think about making a formal plea to the Queen Mother, just so she could make sure that the Free Men and their entire movement was stopped dead in its tracks. So, really, who could blame her for losing her composure to that arrogant Jedi-loving slut who thought that she had any true right to the throne when Djo had those midi-what-are-they-called running through her blood?

"Ducha Lorangal, you kriffin' c^&t!" she heard a very masculine, muffled voice call through one of her bedchamber's windows.

Perking up with renewed, intense vigor at hearing that feminine slur, Lorangal looked to her window and saw a tall, broad-shouldered, blonde-haired Hapan man - handsome as always - outside the gate of her property.

"Come out here and fight me!" she heard the man shout. "And I'll show you how a _true_ Hapan fights, without needing guns to shoot your opponents down!"

At first, Lorangal thought it would be good just to let security dispose of this sackhead - as she liked to think of all men nowadays - through whatever means they thought were appropriate. But then she thought: Perhaps this would be good for her.

Hurriedly, Lorangal took out her commlink and called Jehlak. "Captain?"

"Yes, my mistress?" Jehlak asked.

"Leave security alone for this one," Lorangal commanded. "I want this man all to myself."

"Uh... as you wish, Milady," Jehlak replied.

"Oh, and do you think you can have someone with a vidcam join me on the way out of my house?" Lorangal asked.

"That can be arranged, Milady," Jehlak responded.

Lorangal cut off the communication and left her bedchamber.

A few minutes later, the Ducha was out the front door of her home with a chamberlain, wielding a small vidcam, trailing behind her obediently.

"I hate to ask, Milady," the chamberlain said, "but do you really think this is a good idea?"

Lorangal repressed a growl despite herself, knowing full well that the chamberlain's question was really a polite version of: "_Are you out of your mind?!_"

"I will be safe," Lorangal assured her confidently without turning away from the man behind the gate up ahead. She had her personal anti-projectile shield on hand in case this agitator had any weapons in spite of his boastful claim to the contrary.

"Well, that is reassuring," the chamberlain replied nervously, knowing full well that she herself would not be safe from this man.

As Lorangal and the chamberlain approached the gate, the former took out her remote from within her dress - which also activated the function for her shield - and opened up the gate. The two women then stopped at the Ducha's halt, and the man hesitantly entered her estate, now wary of his surroundings.

His bravado returned once he stopped a few meters from Lorangal. "Well, well," he said with an arrogant smirk, "I honestly didn't expect you to meet me, Your C%&t-ness."

The Ducha mirrored his smirk a mockery of her own. "Let's just say that I'm in a generous mood toward men today," she replied sarcastically. Then, without turning her head, she asked the chamberlain, "Is the camera recording?"

After a few seconds, the chamberlain replied with, "Yes, Milady."

"Are you sure?" Lorangal asked in irritation. She didn't want her victory to be missed.

"The light on top of the camera is green, Milady, and I am pointing it in the right direction," the chamberlain confirmed.

"Very well," Lorangal said. "Then come around to the side to record this properly."

"As you wish, Milady," the chamberlain said. Lorangal then saw the other woman appear off to the side via her peripheral vision.

"Let's begin, sackhead," Lorangal said to the man.

She then adopted a defensive stance, as the enraged man before her did, and then neither of them wasted anymore time before they charged each other. Lorangal let the man attack, allowing her to simply block off each and every one of his hand and foot strikes as they came, letting her opponent tire himself out after one minute.

When one of his punches for her came in sloppily, Lorangal didn't block off the attack; she grabbed the forearm and used it to pull the man in so that she delivered an elbow straight into his face. He stumbled back from the attack, inadvertently allowing Lorangal to deliver a kick into his abdomen. After he doubled over, she planted the toe of her shoe into his already-injured face so that he stumbled back again.

She then backhanded him across the face before following it up with the same attack with her other hand. Lorangal then planted a double-fisted punch smack into the man's forehead, then the Ducha finished the brief fight off by kneeling him straight in the groin. Her opponent dropped to the ground on his knees as he grabbed at his sore genitals in agony.

But she wasn't finished with the man just yet. She then knelt up straight into his jaw, sending him tumbling onto his back, then stomped on his chest, just to make sure that he would stay down as she took out the vibroknife from its hilt around her skinny waist.

Then she dropped and drove the blade straight into the man's genitals.

His scream of agony, which gradually increased in tone, was like music to Lorangal's ears, and it became the greatest music to her ears as she began to cut off his penis and testicle-sack in a rough, unprofessional way.

She wanted him to suffer, and she didn't care if she didn't do this right. She just wanted to hurt him, to have just one man understand the power of the Hapes Consortium.

When Lorangal was done, and the man was no longer a man, the Ducha bent up from her shocked victim and looked straight at the camera. She ignored the terrified chamberlain who was doing everything in her power not to shake the camera too much from what she just witnessed.

"I send this as a message to the Free Men," she said. "Know this: This is the power that the women of the Hapes Consortium have, have had, and will always have until the very end of this civilization, which, by the way, will _not_ be under the hands of you sackheads. And when you come to understand what this poor brothers of yours will have to go through, you will understand why my patience with your group's insolence towards your sex's place is limited.

"And to Tenel Ka: I can assure you, if you ever do see and hear this message of mine, I can assure you that I will never be this harsh to a man ever again... At least not until the Free Men have died. That is all." She nodded to the chamberlain to end the recording, which the latter hesitantly accomplished.

The two of them then turned back for the house and proceeded toward it when the former man mewed painfully. Lorangal and the chamberlain stopped in their tracks and turned back toward him.

"Oh, yes, you, I forgot," Lorangal said in a conversational manner. "You can go run along and show your friends who still have their nuts what the result is when you kriff with me. I'll see to it that the guards help you on your way out of my estate." She then sheathed her knife and turned back to her house with the chamberlain and without anymore stops.

Lorangal returned to her room to watch as the guards finished their duty of dragging the man by his shoulders and dumping him out through the open gate like a sack - no pun intended - of vegetables. The Ducha then used her remote to close the gate back up.

.

Mr. Leader crushed the glass of celebratory Corellian vintage in his hand, not minding the shards that now cut into his hands when what he just saw on his datapad caused him more pain and rage than he could ever imagine.

So, Ducha Lorangal wanted to play it rough, huh? He could arrange that. He only hoped that the next strike against her would work, unlike the first time.

Mr. Leader took out his commlink and called up one of his most loyal followers.

"Flesha Gajab?" Mr. Leader asked after the other man answered.

"Yes, sir?"

"I have a new mission for you: I want you to organize a military strike against Ducha Lorangal's estate on Andalia."

"You mean a full-on, open military strike, sir?" Gajab asked.

"Exactly. And I understand that while we are still mustering power, I'm sure you understand why." Lorangal's message was broadcast publicly on several Hapan frequencies. Surely, Gajab must have seen it by now.

There was some hesitation from Gajab. "I understand, sir. I will organize a strike immediately, after what that poor man went through."


	9. Chapter 9

After watching Lorangal's public broadcast of the castration of the man in her estate, Tenel Ka set her datapad down on her left armrest just to let her only hand slap her face in frustration.

Great, she thought. Now Lorangal has no doubt angered the Free Men even further, and that would be bad for the Consortium all around. If the Ducha was not prepared for some kind of attack by the Free Men, which would no doubt be a public display-

At that realization, Tenel Ka slid her hand away from her face as her eyes widened with the thought that could possibly turn the tide of this crisis. She took out her commlink and dialed the code for General Heqan Booja.

"Yes, Your Majesty?" Booja's voice asked when she answered.

"General Booja," Tenel Ka replied, "I assume that you have seen Ducha Lorangal's public broadcast?"

"I have seen it from a subordinate officer who was not doing what she was supposed to be doing," Booja confirmed. "What about it, Your Highness?"

"I think I know where the Free Men might attack next," Tenel Ka answered.

"Andalia, I presume?" Booja inquired.

"Exactly," Tenel Ka confirmed. "Can you secretly move several platoons worth of troops and war vessels there under the utmost secrecy?"

"It will be difficult, but for you, Your Majesty, and for the cause of stopping the Free Men, I will carry out the task to the best of my abilities, as I always do," Booja answered.

"That is good to hear," Tenel Ka said. "And make sure that when they get there, they are strategically hidden when the Free Men pull off their attack, so that you may be able to, how you say it, get the drop on them. I doubt the Free Men's attack will be covert; they will want to make an example out of Ducha Lorangal after what she did."

"Are you suggesting that they are planning a military attack on the Ducha, Your Majesty?" Booja asked.

"I am not quite sure if they have the resources for that, but I believe that through whatever means they intend, they will make their attack on Lorangal grand, General," Tenel Ka said.

"Understood," Booja replied. "Will that be all, Your Majesty?"

"That will be all, General," Tenel Ka said. Then she cut off the communication and returned to her duties on her datapad.

_Lorangal_, the Queen Mother thought, _you might prove useful to me after all_.

.

When Han and Leia finished watching Ducha Lorangal's public broadcast on Han's datapad, the Solos looked at each other and Han asked, "Remind me why we're fighting for the Consortium again."

"So that the Free Men are stopped and someone like Ducha Lorangal won't ever do something like this again," Leia answered a little too quickly. Her eyes rolled as she looked at what her husband was doing. "The vid's over, Han, you can take your hands off your crotch."

Seated in the pilot seat of the _Falcon_, which was still traveling through hyperspace to meet up with Corran Horn, Han had his hands placed over his groin protectively. "Leia, if you were a guy, you'd get why that's one of the most traumatizing things a man can see, let alone endure."

Leia, seated in the copilot seat, shook her head in exasperation and handed Han's datapad back to him, which forced one of his hands to move away from his groin. But it wasn't so that he could grab it so much as it was to wordlessly wave it away before just as quickly placing that hand back over the other.

Rolling her eyes, Leia turned away and placed the 'pad in one of her pockets. "You think Jaina and Jag just saw that vid and are having this exact same conversation?"

"Leia, just give me some time not to think about what I just saw," Han said as he turned away to look out at the stretched starlines of hyperspace beyond the _Falcon_'s viewport.

"Well, in that case," Leia said, "do you think Allana will be alright without us?"

Still not taking his hands away from his crotch, Han tilted his head in thought. "So long as she doesn't kill anyone by stabbing him through the forehead with a knife, I think she'll be fine," he said sardonically.

"Han," Leia said. "This is serious."

"I thought we dropped this whole matter before we left," Han said.

Leia sighed. "Look, I just didn't know how to broach the subject again to Allana, and I still didn't know before we left."

"So only now are you really worrying, when we're light years away from Hapes?" Han asked, finally taking his hands away from his crotch.

"Strange time, I know," Leia acknowledged.

"Well, look, did Allana feel any darker before we left?" Han asked.

"Not any darker, no," Leia said. "In fact, she felt surprisingly... tranquil. Like Jacen was when he was young."

Han groaned. "Jacen. It always comes back to Jacen, huh? Even after we got over the fact that he fell to the dark side."

"Allana is Jacen's daughter, and the only thing we have left of him," Leia pointed out in a matter-of-fact way.

"Yeah, well... Let's just hope she doesn't associate herself with any Yuuzhan Vong, or get any crazy ideas about the Force not having any light or dark from a Sith infiltrator."

Leia sat back in her copilot chair to join Han in watching the starlines stretch past the _Falcon_'s viewport. "Yeah. Let's hope not."

.

"Tell me again why we're fighting for the Consortium," Jag said as soon as he and Jaina finished watching Ducha Lorangal's public broadcast.

While his wife, who was in the _Faux Harla_'s pilot seat, held the datapad that they used to watch the broadcast, Jag, in the copilot seat, was holding his hands to his crotch protectively.

"So that the Free Men don't cause anymore of this violence, and neither will Duchas like this Lorangal," Jaina said as she replaced her 'pad in her pocket and turned back to wait out the _Harla_'s trip through hyperspace for...

Jag nodded as if he weren't wholly convinced. "Makes sense to me," he said.

Jaina looked at her husband. "You'd probably join 'em, wouldn't you?"

"And you're not even using the Force, are you?" Jag asked.

Jaina's expression straightened. "I wouldn't blame you. Hell, I get it. It makes sense that the Consortium is long overdue for some gender equality."

The _Harla_'s console beeped, indicating that the ship was about to drop out of hyperspace. Jaina turned back and began initiating the sequence wordlessly with Jag that would successfully drop the vessel to their destination.

Once the _Harla_ returned to subspace, Jaina and Jag saw not only a 24r Skipray Blastboat several hundred miles ahead, but also the partial desert world of Ket below.

The _Harla_'s comm console beeped, and Jaina answered it. "Hello?"

"Jaina, Jag, that you guys?" Ben Skywalker's voice came through.

"It's us, Ben," Jaina answered. "Tahiri with you?"

"I'm here," Tahiri Veila's voice said through the frequency.

"Alright," Jaina said. "Let's begin this search."

After she cut off the communication, the two ships then began their headlong descent for Ket.

.

Setting herself down comfortably in the plush sofa in her bedchamber, Lorangal raised the commlink from one of her dress pouches and dialed in the comm code for one of her fellow Duchas.

"Hello?" the feminine voice on the other end inquired after a few moments.

"Ducha Genenon," Lorangal said, "this is Ducha Lorangal of Andalia."

"Ah, yes, the Ducha who dared to openly defy the Free Men yesterday with your public broadcast," Genenon replied with a smirk in her tone. "What can I do for you?"

"I want you to help me start an independent search for the Free Men, separate from the Queen Mother's rule," Lorangal answered.

"You couldn't ask Tenel Ka to help you with that?" Genenon asked.

"She said she'll ask for my help when she needs it," Lorangal replied.

"Well, she is the Queen Mother, after all," Genenon remarked wryly. "So I assume you don't take much favor with how she's handling the search for the Free Men?"

"She didn't even tell me if there _was_ a search for the Free Men," Lorangal stated.

"Ah," Genenon said. "So, either she is organizing a private search, something that won't attract much attention through the Consortium, or she's not doing anything at all."

"Exactly," Lorangal said with a devious smile. "So, if you agree with my idea for this private alliance between the Duchas in disfavor with the Queen Mother, and I know you're among them, Genenon, we can show the Consortium just how more effective we are in ruling this government than one with Jedi blood."

"And that's assuming that we find the Free Men before the Queen Mother does," Genenon said. "Because whatever search party that the Queen Mother may already have finding the Free Men - and even I doubt she doesn't have one right now - finds those terrorists before we do, we'll have wasted our time for nothing."

"Yes, but what else have we really have to do that's more important than this, Genenon?" Lorangal asked. "At the very least, we'll at least have some peace of mind that forces of our own - forces that we can trust more than the Queen Mother's - are at least attempting to find the Free Men."

"You have a point there, Lorangal," Genenon reluctantly acknowledged. "Still, assuming that we do find and crush the Free Men before Her Majesty does, and we prove that we're greater leaders of the Consortium than she is, who will be the new Queen Mother then? How will we decide, if we're successful enough in getting Tenel Ka removed from the throne? You, simply for coming up with this idea?"

"Why not?" Lorangal asked sternly. "What better reason do you have to that throne than I?"

"You know as well as I do that every Ducha who would have once been your ally in this yet-to-be-decided alliance will fight you for the throne, Lorangal," Genenon reminded her. "And I'll do you the courtesy of telling the truth and admitting that I, too, will be among them."

"That's fine by me," Lorangal said. "It's in the nature of the Consortium for petty Duchas to fight both each other and the Queen Mother over the throne."

"And you yourself don't count yourself as a petty Ducha?"

"Do you?" Lorangal countered.

Genenon snorted. "Fair enough. Then if it's only to stop the Free Men, I will help you organize this independent search party for these terrorists."

"Thank you, Genenon," Lorangal said. "And even after this is over, and we beat Tenel Ka to crushing the Free Men, I hope we can still be friends, even when you send assassins to kill me and take the throne for yourself."

"I'm sure we will," Genenon answered, though whether her reply was sincere or not was a dubious notion even to Lorangal. But the latter thought no more of it when Genenon signed off from the communication.

.

Alone and meditating in her bedchamber, Allana centered herself and brought out her feelings for her to see through the Force.

She felt... relieved now that her grandparents, aunt, and uncle were now gone, away from Hapes to fulfill the missions that her mother sent them out to accomplish. Yet, she felt her grandmother continue to worry about her through the Force, as she always seemed to since her ruined birthday party.

Why couldn't Grandma just drop it? Oh, sure, she may not have said anything about it, but Allana could always feel it emanating from her, as if she wanted Allana to come out and simply talk to her about what she did.

What was there to say? Allana wondered. She killed that attacker, as it was necessary, to prevent him from killing or hurting anymore people at that party. And while she did feel anger there, she doubted that it came from the dark side of the Force. Killing that man the way she did was as necessary as the time that she had to gun down several Sith in the Jedi Temple's hangar on Coruscant, even as she watched one of her friends, Bazel Warv, or Barv, as everyone liked to call him, so she could save herself and her family, so that Barv's sacrifice wouldn't be in vain.

Allana assured herself that she would not fall like her father did. She heard from her grandparents countless times why they thought her daddy became Darth Caedus, and she figured that since she knew what to look for, no one would, or should, ever have to worry about her becoming a Sith or anything like that.

Jacen Solo fell because he had spent a year in Yuuzhan Vong captivity under the brainwashing of a Sith infiltrator named Vergere. She taught him that the Force had neither light or dark sides, but rather, it was an all-encompassing power whose uses were determined by the light- or dark-sided nature of the users.

Even to a nine-year-old girl like Allana, it was an interesting concept. While she certainly didn't agree with it, as she saw the light and dark sides of the Force as facts that she herself experienced at one point or another, the idea of the Unifying Force, or the Potentium as she once heard C-3PO call it during one of his dull lectures, was as appealing as it was kind of scary.

On the one hand, it meant that if there was no light or dark side of the Force, then that meant that individuals were a lot freer to decide for themselves what to do with their lives; they didn't have to live by any hampering rules that said that you would be good for doing this or bad for doing that. But on the other hand, that made things a lot more messy, because who could determine what was right and wrong from that point.

Thinking about that, it was sort of easy, to Allana, to see how and why her father became the monster that he died as.

_Monster that he died as_, Allana thought.

In the four years since Caedus's death, Allana never gave it a thought as to how he died exactly. She knew that Jaina killed him, but that was it. And she was aware that he died roughly around the same time that she and her mother were almost killed by that nanobot attack by the Imperial Moffs, something that only Tenel Ka had knowledge of.

Caedus was as powerful as he was monstrous, and while she didn't doubt Jaina's ability to fight, she doubted that Caedus wouldn't have put up more of a battle against her. So how could he have died then?

_Allana_.

She opened her eyes to find out where the feminine voice came from.

_Allana_.

"Who's there?" Allana asked worriedly as she stood up from her meditation spot.

_Allana_.

It was then that she felt a presence behind her.

She swiftly turned in that direction and saw an ethereal female standing there. Allana's unwanted guest was of some kind of birdlike species she had never seen before.

"Who are you?" the girl asked.

"I am the one who your elders believe have corrupted your father," the figure said. "I am the one who, in death, is wrongly believed to be a Sith infiltrator among the Jedi. I am the one who helped your father see the true view of the Force."

"Vergere," Allana wearily realized.


	10. Chapter 10

"What do you want?" Allana asked as she backed away from the ghost before her in fear. "Why are you here?"

"I sense doubt in you, child," Vergere's spirit said. "The same doubt I felt in your father before I helped him see the true nature of the Force."

"You led him away from what was true about the Force!" Allana nearly hollered. "You fed him lies, telling him that the Force didn't have any sides, and you almost brought the rest of the Jedi Order with him. And now, because of you, he fell to the dark side, and now my daddy's dead!"

Vergere's ghost looked at Allana as if she had a point. "Everything I told him was a lie," she said cryptically.

"That's right," Allana said, as if that was reassuring. "Everything you told him was a lie."

"Everything I tell you is a lie," Vergere said.

"Everything you tell me is a lie," Allana repeated, as if she were a weak-minded individual under a mind-trick.

Vergere's ghost was silent for a while before she spoke again.

"It wasn't I who led your father down the wrong path, Allana," Vergere explained. "As your great-uncle Luke told you, it was when he saw you standing next to this Dark Man on the Throne of Balance. He fought against the flow of the Force to prevent that from happening. Admirable intention, but nevertheless, foolish, especially when it saw to the release of Abeloth.

"But while it's true that I was indefinitely responsible for your father's change of view regarding the Force, it was ultimately he who had decided his own fate. Yes, Lumiya had cemented his fate when she lied to him that he could save the galaxy from destruction.

"However, one thing that I want to tell you is that your father could have been saved if your friends and family tried hard enough."

Allana looked at Vergere's ghost dubiously. "What do you mean?"

Again, Vergere's spirit was silent for a moment. "Tell me, Allana, what exactly was the corruption present in the idea of the Potentium, or the Unifying Force?"

"That there is no light and dark side, just as you preached," Allana stated.

"And that is the corruption?"

Allana nodded wordlessly and confidently.

"Is that all?" Vergere's spirit asked.

Allana suddenly looked less than certain. "Yes." Her tone mirrored that of her expression.

"Then you have absolutely no argument to support the ideas espoused by your great-uncle," Vergere said. "And I'm going to tell you why."

"Everything you tell me is a lie," Allana said with a shake of her head. "Why should I continue to listen to anything by you?"

"Because the doubt in your mind regarding your father's fate will continue to linger until the day you die," Vergere said. "And I'm here to help you to settle those doubts once and for all."

"Allana!"

The little girl turned to the exit of her bedchamber, where her mother's voice came from. She turned back around to face Vergere's ghost, only to find that she was gone.

Allana turned back again in time for her mother to enter her room with a worried expression.

"Are you alright?" Tenel Ka asked. "I felt through your Force-presence that you were distressed. Was there something going on in here?"

Knowing that lying to her mother would prove no use, Allana looked at Tenel Ka and said, "Vergere was here."

"What?" Tenel Ka asked. "What do you mean?"

"Her spirit just talked to me," Allana said. "I was a little scared at first, but after a while, she was just talking."

"Talking about what?" Tenel Ka asked.

"About the Force, and about Daddy," Allana answered reluctantly.

"Oh," Tenel Ka said. "What did she say?"

"That Daddy's fall was his own fault, and that she wasn't to blame," Allana said.

"I see," Tenel Ka stated. After a thoughtful moment, she asked, "Why did she contact you?"

"She felt doubt coming from me," Allana said.

"Doubt about what?"

"About what happened to Daddy."

Tenel Ka looked at her daughter in confusion. "Your daddy died when Darth Caedus was born. And even he died at Aunt Jaina's hand."

"I know about that," Allana said. "But, tell me, how was it that you knew that the Imperial Moffs' nanobots would attack us?"

Tenel Ka fell silent then. "I felt it through the Force, Allana," she said after a moment.

"Oh," Allana said, as if she just got the answer to a mildly difficult math question. "I see. Okay then. Hopefully, that'll make Vergere stay away from now on."

"I hope so," Tenel Ka said warily. She then backed out through the door. "Well... have a good afternoon, child." With that, she was out the door and it closed in front of her.

When Allana felt her mother's presence disappear, she felt Vergere reappear behind her.

"No wonder your father fell in love with your mother," Vergere said as Allana kept her back to the ghost. "She lied through omission, a trait that any Sith would find impressive."

Allana turned back to the spirit. "What was she keeping from me?"

"The fact that it was your father, Darth Caedus, who told her about the nanobot attack against the two of you," Vergere answered evenly.

Those words sent a crushing blow into Allana's being. She felt herself go weak in the knees as the revelation quickly sunk in. The Chume'da allowed herself to collapse to her hindquarters as her face dropped completely in shock.

"Yes," Vergere said smoothly. "You now know. Your father was never dead. At least, not until your aunt killed him. His very last act was one of love, of selflessness, even though it meant the end of his life. In his final moments, he had renounced the 'dark side,' if only temporarily, to save you and your mother. And for his trouble, your aunt, the Sword of the Jedi, one of your heroes, killed him.

"So tell me, Allana, what are you going to do with this?"

Allana shook herself out the very reverie that Vergere described word for word and looked up at the spirit. "Everything you tell me is a lie," she repeated, as if that would console her.

"And why is that?" Vergere's spirit asked.

Allana ground her teeth in determination. "Because everything that comes out of that ghostly mouth of yours is just a deceit. A trick to lure me away from the light side just as you did my daddy. Well, I won't let you."

"You cannot banish me back into the Netherworld of the Force, you know," Vergere pointed out. "Only I can do that for myself. You will have better luck removing your own heart and living through the experience than being able to rid yourself of me."

"Shut up!" Allana shouted. "Leave me alone! I won't let you make me into a Sith!"

"That was never my intention, just as it was never my intention to do that to your father, Allana," Vergere replied, ever so calmly. "Oh, and by the way, your mother and the guards of this Palace cannot hear your shouts, nor can your mother feel the emotional turmoil brewing in you. I have just used the Force to shield this bedchamber from both sound and from your emotions."

Realizing the trouble that she was in, Allana turned for the door and attempted to leave, only to find herself rooted in place where she stood.

"Ah-ah-ah," Vergere's spirit said as she wagged a finger at the Chume'da. "You aren't going anywhere, Allana. I have much to teach you."

"You can't convince me of your Sith ways!" Allana shouted, managing to turn back to the spirit.

"I won't try to, because I was never a Sith," Vergere said. "Oh, sure, I have encountered Sith in my time, such as Lumiya and the Dark Man who your father saw you stand next to. But I was never one of them. Lumiya was nothing more than a deceitful witch who twisted my words to corrupt your father. I taught him what he learned so he could save the Yuuzhan Vong, and, more importantly, the galaxy, and to widen the Jedi Order's dogmatic view of themselves and of the Force. But because of the vision that he saw of you, standing next to the Dark Man, he strayed from his path, and thanks to Lumiya, he fell into his own darkness and corruption, and led the Jedi back into the same narrow-mindedness that once destroyed Yoda's Order.

"But, then again, as I have said, your father could have been saved, if your friends and family had tried hard enough."

By now, Allana had calmed down and looked at Vergere's spirit with curiosity now. "How could my father have been saved?"

Vergere's spirit gave the birdlike equivalent of a smirk. "In due time, Allana, in due time. But first, I must educate you, not exactly in the same vein as your father, but I believe that I will get my points across all the same."

"I won't be alone like Daddy was," Allana said. "You can't keep me in here forever. I will be with Mommy, and I'll see Grandma, Grandpa, Aunt Jaina, and everyone else."

"Oh, I can wait," Vergere said. "I had waited several decades for the Yuuzhan Vong to invade this galaxy so your father could be selected to save them from themselves. I can wait for you."

"I'll tell them about you," Allana threatened. "They'll help me stop from falling like Daddy did."

"You will not be able to do so," Vergere told her. "I will see to that, my dear. They'll never know what's 'wrong' with you, as they would think of it. In fact, they will be encouraged. Your grandmother's fears about falling like her eldest son will be allayed, and your ignorant mother will be none the wiser, as she always is."

"What are you saying about Mommy?" Allana asked.

"Oh, what I have to say about your mother, I shall save for when I show you how your father could have been helped from his darkness," Vergere said. "But for now, I must ask you this basic question: What is the difference between the Jedi and the Sith, Allana?"

"The Jedi want to protect the galaxy, the Sith want to rule it," Allana answered.

"In theory, yes," Vergere said. "However, that is not always the case for either side. But, since I'm not a supporter of the Sith, we will just ignore them, and you can go on assuming that ruling the galaxy is what they all want to do. So, with that in mind, would I necessarily fit the definition of a Sith, when my last act was self-sacrifice, just as your father's was?"

"Lumiya sacrificed herself to protect the truth that Daddy was the one who killed Great-Aunt Mara, and Lumiya was a Sith," Allana countered. "Just because you're a Sith, you can still sacrifice yourself for what you believe in. Just as you and Daddy did."

"Lumiya did not sacrifice herself," Vergere said. "Oh, sure, she took the blame for your great-aunt's death, and while she was certainly prepared for death herself when your great-uncle killed her, she never really sacrificed herself. She did think that she could win against Luke Skywalker, you know, even if she knew that her chances were slim. What your father and I did, on the other hand, was pure sacrifice. I relinquished my life when I crashed that starfighter on Ebaq Nine to wipe out those Yuuzhan Vong so that your father, your aunt, and their friends could all survive. And Jacen relinquished his life just so he could warn Tenel Ka about the doom that you faced with her."

"Even to a child like me, your argument still sounds flimsy," Allana said. "It still sounds like Lumiya sacrificed herself."

Vergere shook her head in disappointment. "You will see just how great the differences are, Allana," Vergere said. "But, with that out of the way, it is the Jedi who I want to talk about now.

"You see, one of the reasons that Yoda's Order, which I was admittedly part of before I departed the galaxy to join the Yuuzhan Vong for their invasion, had fallen was because the Force itself had fallen into darkness."

"Which shows that there's a dark side after all," Allana said.

"No," Vergere said. "No, that is not so. You see, as I told your father, it is not that the Force has sides, but rather, it is our own sides that affect the Force."

"So you're telling me that because two Sith had existed at the time Yoda's Order fell," Allana said, "that the Force had fallen into darkness?"

"Well, no, not really," Vergere said. "You see, it was through the gradual accumulation of individual Sith darkness, from Darth Bane all the way to Palpatine and his apprentices. And since the Jedi believed that the Sith were extinct, they fell into complacency so that the darkness of each Sith, from Bane onward, could corrupt the Force."

"Which is why the Jedi aren't complacent today," Allana countered. "The Sith are still numerous today, even after the Lost Tribe was nearly wiped out at Coruscant. It's so the Jedi and Sith can keep the Force in balance, so Abeloth won't return."

"Oh, Abeloth will return, just not in your lifetime," Vergere refuted. "Or in the lifetimes of many of your descendants, Allana. But she will return. That is, unless the Dagger of Mortis can be found, but I digress. My point is this: between the Jedi and the Sith, there are many set and defined rules, rules that are guaranteed to cripple each of them at some point or another due to their inflexibility.

"The Sith had no choice but to reduce themselves to two at a time, so that they would not have to constantly betray each other at every turn. And the Jedi are sometimes too weak or even outright unwilling to solve problems because of their principles. And ironically enough, when they do tend to solve problems, it goes against their principles anyway, another major factor that led to the downfall of Yoda's Order, and believe me, it will happen to Luke Skywalker's Order one day."

"Everything you tell me is a lie," Allana growled. She refused to believe that Great-Uncle Luke's Jedi Order will fall.

Vergere committed the birdlike equivalent of a smirk. "I said that to your father many times during his education under my hand. Do you know what he took away from that meaning?"

Allana shook her head impatiently.

"It means that the truth is greater than what any words can express," Vergere said. "So, what I tell you, is smaller than what truly is. And when you take that into account, you will understand the real difference between Lumiya's 'sacrifice', and the real sacrifices that your father and I took. And you understand even that, you will see how and why Luke Skywalker's Order will fall, just as Yoda's Order fell."

Allana still wasn't convinced. "Go back to the Netherworld of the Force," she growled.

Vergere tilted her head. "I believe that will be enough for today. I will see you later, Allana." With that, Vergere's spirit faded into the Force.

And Allana, though she still didn't believe in most of Vergere's words, suddenly felt a lot more enlightened and...

Light.

_The light that is you_, she heard Vergere speak out from beyond.


	11. Chapter 11

The _Millennium Falcon_ and Corran Horn's Skipray Blastboat touched down on Terephon in the woods of the planet closest to the former estate of the late Ducha of this world. Corran provided himself and the Solos three speeder bikes in total to travel to the estate to begin their investigation.

There, they found that the estate was cordoned off by a local police blockade while the officers and investigators continued to roam the grounds, both inside and outside the considerable walls of the dead Ducha's home.

When the Solos and Corran had disembarked from their bikes, which they parked across the street of the investigated estate, the trio was met by the blonde police captain, who had spotted them and approached them from across the street.

"Jedi Solo, Master Horn, Captain Solo," the captain said, "I am Captain Felegra Jono of the Terephon Security Force. Her Majesty has already informed us of your arrival. If you are confident that you can find what we couldn't for the past couple of days since Ducha Tragon died, we'd be..."

"Did you check the sewer system beneath the estate?" Corran asked. He was currently looking past Jono toward a sewer grate in the middle of the street.

The police captain looked at the Jedi Master in confusion. "Excuse me?"

"Did you check the sewer system?" Corran repeated as he looked back at the captain.

Jono shook her head. "No. We didn't."

"And why not?" Corran asked. "It's a common escape way for criminals."

"We didn't think that there would be any male servant who would dare try to escape via the sewers," Jono explained. "Males in the Consortium tend to be very clean and as vain as any other Hapan. Sure, female Hapans are more likely to get themselves physically dirty when necessary, but unless they are ordered to do something like mud-wrestling, for example, Hapan males aren't all that likely to get totally dirty."

"Well, in case you didn't notice," Han interjected, "there's kind of a revolution going on right now. And I think that any male slaves-"

"Han," Leia enunciated as she nudged her husband in the ribs with her elbow.

"Sorry," Han said to his wife before returning his attention to Jono. "I think that any male _servants_ would take whatever means they thought were necessary to join the Free Men, even if it means getting dirty, or dirtier than usual. After all, they just killed their own Ducha."

"That's understandable," Jono acknowledged neutrally. "Treachery is natural here in the Consortium, and given this male uprising, as you said, Captain Solo, I'm not surprised that they would resort to killing their Ducha."

"But you didn't think they'd get their hands literally dirty, did you?" Han asked pointedly.

"It would make sense to escape unnoticed," Corran backed up. "After all, even if they escaped as soon as their Ducha was dead, it would still take them quite a while to get to a space-worthy. I'd imagine that they'd attract quite a bit of attention by traveling across a populated area like this, and that were the case, you would have had them in custody by now."

While Jono's outward expression - both body and face - conveyed the sense of objective evidence-gathering and conjecture-judging, Leia could sense from her relatively unrestrained Force-aura that she couldn't take how these two _men_ would dare question her authority and how she conducted the investigation. Combine that with the fact that she had to deal with two Jedi and a male smuggler, and she was amazed that Jono could possess this level of self-control.

"Well, let's see if your hypothesis turns out to have some validity, Master Jedi," Jono said as she waved toward the grate in the middle of the street.

Corran nodded to her and walked past her toward the grate, unwary of any vehicles that may come this way given the police blockade, and bent down at the closed manhole. He took out some plastic gloves and put them on before he removed the grate.

"Do you wish to have any of my officers escort you, Master Horn?" Jono asked. Her tone was subtle, but Leia could practically hear her holding herself back from saying, "_Please go down there and die with your Jedi and smuggler accomplices_."

"Yes, three of them, if you don't mind," Corran said as he turned his head back to look at the police captain. "I understand that you would probably want an equal number of your officers looking after us."

"As a matter of fact, I do," Jono replied, barely biting back the reluctance in her tone, before she lifted her commlink to her lips and activated it to call in three officers.

"Han, Leia, you're coming with us, too," Corran said.

A minute later, three female officers - one a brunette, another dark-skinned, and the last one yellow-skinned - came trotting from the open gate of the estate.

"You three, go down there with the Solos and Master Horn," Jono ordered the officers. "And listen to whatever he has to say." She pointed at Corran.

"But-" the brunette started to say.

"That's an order," Jono interrupted.

By then, Corran had already climbed down into the sewers, and Han and Leia had followed. The three of them waited for the reluctant cops to follow them down into the sewer waters.

Han had his hand covering his nose in disgust. "I could see why you gals wouldn't wanna search down here anyway," he said to the cops. "Even I'd doubt that these male sl- Uh, servants would wanna come down here to escape."

"We can handle something like this," the yellow-skinned cop insisted, though with something of an attitude. She then looked past him down toward Corran. "What are you doing?"

The Jedi Master was kneeling in the dirty, shallow water with a waterproof glowstick beneath the waterline. He was looking a little ahead but still downward at what the light was shining at.

"You see these footprints?" he asked his five accomplices. "Pretty recent, by the looks of it. I'd estimate about a day or two old, probably around the time that Ducha Tragon was killed and her male servants all disappeared."

"Captain!" the dark-skinned cop called up back to the open manhole above.

"What?" Jono called back.

"The Jedi was right!" the cop replied. "The male servants did decide to walk in these infested waters to escape!"

"Thank you for the update, Officer Bajak!" Jono replied. This time, though, the contempt she held toward Corran for being both a male and a Jedi slipped somewhat in light of the news that he actually found something that none of her investigative force could have found in the first place.

Corran then stood up from the waters, turned off the glowstick, replaced it within his robes, and called back up to Jono. "Captain, would you like to focus more of your forces' attention down here?!"

"Would it be alright if you continued with the officers you already have, Master Horn?" Jono countered diplomatically, even with a necessarily-raised voice.

"If you say so!" Corran called back. "Good luck with the continued investigation inside the estate!"

Corran then took out his glowstick again, activated it, dropped it into the water, then turned to the other Jedi in his party. "Leia, if you'd be so kind?"

She nodded, then reached out a hand to use the Force to begin floating the glowstick along the path that the slightly-faded footsteps had left in their wake. At Corran's lead, the rest of them followed him and the glowstick to where the footsteps led them.

"Why is she floating that glowstick for you?" the red-haired cop asked Corran.

"I, unfortunately, lack telekinesis as an ability," Corran said.

"Oh," the same cop said in realization. But then her expression shifted into one of smugness.

Corran didn't see it, for his attention was on the sewage-infested trail ahead. But Leia noticed it and thought, _Wow. You Hapan women really do pride that notion of feminine superiority, huh__?_ But the Jedi Knight shook her head and returned her focus on keeping the glowstick moving beneath the water.

"You're gonna need to get your robes and hands washed after this, you know that, right?" Han asked Corran.

"You won't have to remind me," the Jedi Master replied stoically.

.

"What kinda dumb Ducha would wanna have a home here?" Ben asked as he, Tahiri, and the Fels looked out toward the desert mesa where the late Ducha Pollana's estate was. From the looks of things, it had been abandoned, with not even a police blockade around it.

"Maybe she likes to go Ketton hunting," Jaina suggested idly.

"Ketton?" Jag wondered. "What are those?"

"The native nomads of this world," Tahiri answered. "They're kinda like Tuskens, only peaceful."

"Oh," Jag said. "Well, did she actually decide to stay here to hunt them for sport or something?"

"There weren't any reports of that from what info we got from Tenel Ka on the way here," Jaina reminded her husband. "Then again, I wouldn't actually be surprised if she did anyway and it was kept out of any records. This place doesn't even have a planetary security force. I guess Pollana was arrogant enough to think that she had such a firm grasp on her male subjects that she wouldn't think they could betray her and try running off."

"But they did, and if this place actually had a force, they'd have caught them," Ben observed.

"Wait, wait, wait," Jag said. "If this world doesn't have a planetary security force, then how can it be that that report say that there was?"

"Officially, Ket has a security force, when in reality, it doesn't," Jaina explained. "No one really comes here, and its official statement of even having a police force is just to assuage the public at large in the Consortium."

"But why doesn't this place have a planetary security force?" Jag asked.

"No one's quite sure, but like I said, Pollana was probably just arrogant enough to think that Ket didn't need a security force," Jaina said. "The only way that it was even discovered that Ducha Pollana died was because of the beacon surgically placed in her heart that, when she died, had alerted the media that she had died."

"So we're the first to actually investigate her estate then," Jag concluded.

"Exactly," Jaina confirmed.

"Well, then, let's get started," Ben said.

The four of them then turned, mounted the speeder bikes that Ben and Tahiri had brought along with them, and half a minute later, they were all zooming down the hill for the abandoned estate ahead.

.

A lone Hapan shuttle dropped out of hyperspace in the Aldania system and began flying toward the system's titular world.

The pilot, Captain Flesha Gajab, activated the ship's intercom and said, "Alright, boys, are you all ready back there?"

"Yes, sir, we are," a male voice replied from the other end.

"Good, 'cause we're comin' up on the drop point, and as I said before, when I say go, you get that door open and you _go_," Gajab reminded his charge.

"Understood, Captain," the male representative of the "boys" in the shuttle's cabin space replied.

After Gajab closed off the frequency, it wasn't long until his shuttle encountered Aldania's planetary defense force, which was signified by the chiming of Gajab's shuttle's comm. He activated it.

"Shuttle One-One-Five-Seven-Eight," the authoritative, female voice on the other end said, "this is Aldania Orbital Security. Identify yourself and your purpose here."

Gajab quickly made sure that his vocal scrambler, which made him sound like a Hapan female, was on before he replied. "Aldania Orbital Security, this is Captain Henar Oloan. I'm here to deliver some silks and spices for Her Noble Ducha Lorangal."

"Wait a minute, Captain Oloan," Orbital Security replied. Exactly one minute later, she came back with, "Captain, your ship's credentials check out given our scans. You may proceed to deliver your cargo to the Ducha's estate."

"Thank you, Orbital Security," Gajab replied. "Have a good day." He then signed off on the frequency and proceeded for the world ahead.

.

Aboard Aldania's Orbital Security space station, the operator who talked to Captain "Henar Oloan" watched as the shuttle proceeded for the planet.

The operator smirked at the doomed ship. "You can't fool Aldania's Orbital Security, Captain Gajab," she said as she played back the recording of her brief conversation with "Oloan." "Not when our beloved Ducha is expecting something like this."

Every word that the faux Captain had spoken was through a man's voice, revealed thanks to the installed package next to the operator's computer.

.

As soon as the shuttle was through Aldania's atmosphere and descending, it wasn't long before it was immediately surrounded by a squadron of Miy'til starfighters that began firing upon it with blue lasers.

Gajab quickly threw the shuttle into the best evasive maneuvers he could kick out of the ship, especially when he didn't dial the inertial compensators for this unexpected dogfight.

"What's going on?" was one of the questions that Gajab had heard coming from the shuttle's cabin behind him. Among that were simply murmurs of concern and fear for something that none of them could have seen coming for the planned assassination of Ducha Lorangal.

Barely a quarter of a minute after the attack began, the shuttle took a hit in one of its engines, and it began going down, angling away from Lorangal's estate so that Gajab couldn't even pilot it for a suicide run, in spite of his efforts to yank the shuttle that way.

Seeing that he wouldn't make it out, he activated the intercom. "Gentlemen, go, go, go!" he shouted.

A few seconds later, he could see through the forward viewport every single one of the commandos that had been trained for this mission descending for the estate off to the side and below.

Satisfied that his men at least escaped to try to carry out their mission, Gajab closed his eyes and embraced his fate.

.

The male commandos, all sheathed in black jumpsuits that hid their entire forms, activated their parachutes as soon as possible before they landed inside the grounds of Ducha Lorangal's estate. When they landed, they heard the crash and explosion of the shuttle that ferried them here, but none of them turned back to view the plume of smoke that rose in the horizon behind them.

Instead, they continued forward, shrugging off the backpacks that had their parachutes and then hurried toward Lorangal's mansion, pulling out their assault rifles in the process as they quickly shot down the security guards that came out to meet them.

Once the guards were all dead, the commandos crashed through the front door of the mansion and its first-level windows as they began their search for the Ducha herself. But as soon as their search started, several of the commandos were gunned down not only by Lorangal's own security team, but also by the Hapan soldiers already stationed in various places around the house.

The entire confrontation between the rightful Hapan soldiers and these male anarchists took only ten minutes, which resulted in massive property damage, much to Lorangal's consternation as she watched the events unfold live on her datapad.

In the safety of her Battle Dragon, which hid behind Aldania from where the shuttle first arrived.

At least the male commandos were all defeated and killed in the end, though more of Lorangal's security force were killed than the soldiers secretly shipped in by the Queen Mother.

Once the battle inside her now-ruined mansion was all over, Lorangal decided to call up Djo on her commlink.

"Hello?' the Queen Mother's voice came through the frequency.

"Your Majesty, it is I, Ducha Lorangal," she said. "I give you my thanks once again for sending those soldiers of yours to my estate. They have been incredibly helpful in defeating the commandos that have stormed and ruined my mansion."

"Oh, so it was a commando attack," Djo said with a hint of disappointment. "I thought the Free Men would muster up more than that. It seems they still do not have the resources to pull off a full-scale attack on any Ducha yet."

"I owe you my life," Lorangal said.

"Nice try, Ducha," Djo said. "But those words will sound empty when you try to send over more assassins to try to eliminate myself and my daughter." The Queen Mother then signed off.

Lorangal only snorted, but thought no more of it before she dialed in Genenon's code.

"Did you get all the support you could get, my friend?" Lorangal asked once Genenon answered.

"I have," Genenon said. "Did you?"

"Yes," Lorangal said. "Shall we begin our search for the Free Men?"

"Let's," Genenon agreed with the hint of a smile.

With that, Lorangal signed off from her quick communication with her fellow Ducha to get the proverbial ball rolling.


End file.
